147 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



the males each consisting of a hairy scale, to which are attached 

 two stamens ; the females of a similar scale bearing the ovary. 

 The catkins appear before the leaves, in March or April. 

 Salix is the old Latin name for Willows and Osiers. 



The Lombardy Poplar (Pofulus fastigiata). 



It is an easy step from the Willows to the Poplars, for the 

 Genus Salix and the Genus Populus together form the Order 

 Salicineag. We have only two indigenous species in Britain 

 the White Poplar or Abele (P. alba), and the Aspen (P. 

 tremuld). In spite of the fact that it was not introduced until 

 1758 it may safely be said that the Lombardy Poplar is now a 

 better known tree than either of our native species. It is the 

 tree that is so frequently planted as a live screen, to break the 

 force of the wind or to hide some undesirable prospect. Its 

 growth is most rapid, and the story is told of a man who 

 planted this tree in his garden at Great Tew, in Oxfordshire, and 

 was living fifty years after, by which time his tree had beaten 

 him considerably in the matter of growth, being then a hundred 

 and twenty-five feet high ! But like most other trees of rapid 

 growth it attains no great age for a tree, that is and it is 

 doubtful if it exceeds a century of life. The whole of its 

 branches and shoots take an upward direction, which gives 

 the tree the fastigiate or sharp-pointed outline which has 

 suggested its specific name. 



In our native Poplars the shoots are downy ; \nfastigiata they 

 are smooth. The leaves are borne on long compressed stalks, 

 which give them the ever-tremulous movement so well known 

 in connection with the Aspen. As in the Willows, the sexes 

 are on separate trees, and the flowers all in catkins. There is 

 no perianth, a single bract-like scale serving instead, though 

 there is a cup-shaped organ, within which is found, in one plant, 

 a one-celled ovary, and in the other sex from twelve to twenty 



