Populus 1805 



At Weeting Park near Thetford there are two large trees in the park 

 about 90 ft. high and 17 ft. 4 in. in girth, whose trunks are covered with large burrs. 

 Mr. Howell, the gardener here, told me that a much larger one had been blown down 

 some time before my visit, the trunk, of which was no less than 20 ft. in girth at 

 eight feet from the ground. The rings in the wood showed this tree to be over 

 200 years old. At St. Helens, Norwich, in Mr. Skelton's garden on the banks of the 

 Wensum, there are two fine trees, one of which in 1908 was 95 ft. by 15J ft. 



In T \ssex it is rare, but at Audley End, in a withy bed below the park, there are 

 three trees, one of which measured 1 15 ft. by 15 ft. on 18th March, 1907, when it was 

 not yet in flower. At Stanstead Bury, Hertford, Mr. H. Clinton Baker found a tree 

 bearing pistillate catkins, and 85 ft. by 12 ft. 9 in., in April 191 1. At Bishop Stort- 

 ford Henry has seen a large female tree. 



In Gloucestershire the tree is quite rare, the only ones I know of being a small 

 tree by the roadside on Crickley Hill, and another on the banks of an old canal at 

 Coombe Hill, half a mile west of the Gloucester and Tewkesbury Road. Miss F. 

 Woolward discovered a female tree about 60 ft. high, near Bourton on the Water ; 

 and at Forthampton Court, near Tewkesbury, there are four trees about 90 ft. by 15 

 to 16 ft., by a pond north of Mr. Yorke's house. In Herefordshire the tree, I am 

 told by Mr. T. E. Groom of Hereford, is not uncommon in the Wye valley, while 

 Mr. Openshaw of Wofferton Court farm informs me that it was more abundant fifty 

 years ago. In Worcestershire, Lees, 1 who seems to have known the tree better than 

 recent botanists of the county, says, " A few scraggy native black poplars appear in 

 various localities by brooksides, but this tree appears to be dying out." At Arley 

 Castle there is a fine tree planted in the park, which is about 100 ft. by 15 ft. 



In Shropshire I have seen more than in any other county, the finest being a 

 tree at Oakley Park, Ludlow, which in 1908 was about 100 ft. by 15 ft. 10 in. 

 Between Craven Arms and Lydbury North there are several comparatively young 

 trees planted by the roadside about 90 ft. by 6 to 7 ft. In a meadow near Walcot Park 

 a line of trees in which P. nigra and P. serotina are mixed, shows the difference 

 of size, habit, and period of shedding their leaves very plainly. On 28th October 

 1908, P. nigra had shed all its upper leaves, while those of P. serotina were still 

 green. P. nigra here averaged about 70 ft. by 6 ft., whilst P. serotina were about 

 100 ft. by 9 ft., all being apparently planted at the same time. Between Oswestry 

 and Whittington on the main road are several large but not very old trees. Strutt 

 says that the black poplar is oftener found in Suffolk and in Cheshire than in any 

 other counties, but I can hear of none in the latter county. 



The largest I have seen in Wales are at Gwernyffed Park, Breconshire, 

 where there is a tree in a belt west of the lodge gate, overgrown with ivy, which 

 is about 90 ft. by 17 ft. At Maesllwych Castle, Radnorshire, there are two fine 

 trees in the park, with burry trunks, measuring about 85 ft. by 15^ ft. in 1907. 



In the north I have seen none except at Alnwick, where in a field by the road 

 between the town and the castle there is an old tree. Mr. A. C. Forbes tells me of 

 a female tree near Hexham. 



1 Botany of Worcestershire, xl. (1867). 

 VII X 



