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ARBORETUM ET FRU'J'ICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



1492. P. alba. 



Flowers dark brown 



is derived from tire Dutch name of the tree, Abeel ; and this name is supposed by some to be taken 

 from that of the city of Arbela, in the plains of Nineveh, near which, on the banlcs of the Tigris 

 and Euphrates, great numbers of these trees grew. It is said to be the same tree as that mentioned 

 in the Bible as Abel-shittim, Chittim, Shittim-wood, and Kittim. The Dutch Beech is an old 

 name, given to this tree, as we are informed by Hartlib, in his Compleat Husbandman (IC59), on 

 account of ten thousand trees of it having been brought over all at once from Flanders, and 

 planted in the country places ; where the people, not knowing what they were, called them Dutch 

 beech trees. The French name of Ypreau alludes to the tree being found in great abundance 

 near the town of Ypres. 



The Sexes. Both sexes are described in the English Flora, and are not unfrequent in plantations. 



Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 1618. ; Hayne Abbild,, t. 202. ; the plate of this tree in Arb. Brit., 1st 

 edit., vol. vii. ; and our fig. 1492. 



Spec, Char,, Sfc. Leaves lobed and tootlied ; some- 

 what heart-shaped at the base ; snow-white, and 

 densely downy beneath. Catkins of the female 

 plant ovate. Stigmas 4. {Smith.) Root creeping, 

 and producing numerous suckers. Branches very 

 white, and densely downy when young. Leaves 

 angular, and generally with three principal lobes, 

 variously and unequally toothed, blunt-pointed, 

 veiny; dark green and smooth above, and covered 

 with a thick remarkably white down beneath. 

 The leaves vary very much in form ; and on young 

 luxuriant branches they are almost palmate. The 

 leaves are not folded in the bud, and the buds 

 are without gum. A large tree. Europe, in woods 

 or thickets, in rather moist soil. Height 90 ft. 

 March. Seed ripe ; May. Decaying leaves dark brown. 



Varieties. These are numerous, but the principal one, P. (a.) canescens, being 

 generally considered as a species, we shall first give it as such ; after enu- 

 merating the varieties which belong to P. alba. 



t V, a. 2 hyhrida Bieb. Fl. Taur. Cauc. 2. p. 423. and Suppl. p. 633. 

 P. alba Bieh. 1. c. ; ? P. intermedia Mertens ; P. a. crassifolia 

 Mertens; and P,gn!,ea. Lodd. Cat. 1836. Appears to be inter- 

 mediate between P. alba and P. (a.) canescens. It is plentiful in 

 the neighbourhood of streams in Tauria and Caucasus; whence it 

 appears to have been introduced into Britain in 1816. 



P. a. 3 acerifolia. P. ocerifolia Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836; P. ^uercifolia 

 Hort. ; P. palmata Hort. ; P. arembergica Lodd. Cat. 1836 ; P. 

 belgica Lodd. Cat. 1836. A very distinct variety of P. alba, with 

 the leaves broad, and deeply lobed, like those of some kinds of 

 ^I'cer. 



t P. a. i candicans. P. candicans Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836 ; P. nivea Lodd. 

 Cat. A strong-growing variety of P. alba ; probably identical with 

 P. ffcerifolia. This is the P. tomentosa of the Hawick Nursery, 

 and the hoary poplar of the Edinburgh nurseries, where it is propa- 

 gated by layers. 



5? P. a, 5 cBgi/ptiaca Hort. P. a. pallida Hort. ; the Egyptian white Poplar. 

 A much weaker-growing plant than any of the preceding varieties. 



5: P. a. 6 pendula. P. a. var. gracilis ramis pcndentibus ATcrtcns. Spe- 

 cimens of this variety, of both sexes, are in the Linnean herbiirium ; 

 and there are trees of it on the ramparts at Bremen. 



^ 2. P. (a.) cane'scens S7)iitk, The gre}-, or common white. Poplar. 



Identification. Smith Fl. Brit., p. 1080.; Eng. FI., 4. p. 243. 



Synnnymes. P. alba Mill. Diet. ed. 8. No. l.-. P. alba fi)lils min6ribus Rait Syn. 44G. ; F. felba 



fOlio minbre Uauh. Hist. v. 1. p. 2. 160. fig. ; Peuplier grisaille, Fr. 

 The Sexes. Only the female plant is expressly described in the English Flora. The plant in the 



Horticultural Society's Garden is the male. 

 Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 1619. ; Hayne Abbild., t. 201. ; and owe fig. 1493. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves roundish, deeply waved, toothed ; hoary and downy 

 beneath. Catkins of the female plant cylindrical. Stigmas 8. It is 

 essentially distinguished from P, alba, as Mr. Crowe first discovered, 

 by the stigmas, which are 8, spreading in two opposite directions. The 



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