166 THE BLACK POPLAR. 



where they would be least expected. A writer in the 

 Gardener's Mayazine states that the kitchen-garden at 

 Versailles was entirely neglected from the beginning of 

 the French Revolution until 1819 ; and that, in the 

 interval, the light downy seeds of the Black Poplars and 

 Willows of the neighbouring woods had sprung up from 

 the ground, and from the crevices of the walls, and attained 

 even a timber size. The same author records a similar 

 instance in Moscow, where, in 1814, he saw springing up 

 everywhere, from the ashes of those ruined houses which 

 ^ had not been rebuilt, 



rtMMfafiffiJI plants of the native 



Black Poplar. 1 Thus, 

 had Moscow been left 

 to itself, that immense 

 city would have be- 

 come by this time a 

 natural forest. 



The timber arrives 

 at perfection in about 

 fifty or sixty years, 

 soon after which it 

 begins to decay. In 

 the arts it is of no great 

 value; and, owing to 



its lightness and softness, is not much used, except for 

 packing-cases and soles of shoes, &c. In Russia the bark is 

 used in the preparation of morocco leather, and in England 

 for tanning leather. Loudpn states that the bark of the 

 old trunk is employed by fishermen for buoying up their 

 nets, and mentions other uses to which various parts of the 

 tree may be applied ; but none of these are important. 



There are many trees of this species existing in Great 



Britain which exceed seventy feet in height : one at Bury 



St. Edmund's is said by Strutt (from whose Syha the 



engraving at page 165 is taken) to be ninety feet high and 



1 Loudoa slates tins to be the A?pen. 



