154 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



an enormous tree of the swamps of the south and west 

 considerably resembling the Cotton tree, but without the 

 resinous buds of that species. 



Among the European kinds, the most ornamental, as we 

 have already remarked, is the Silver aspen, White poplar, or 

 Abele tree (P. alba), which grows to a great size on a deep 

 loamy soil in a very short time. The leaves are divided 

 into lobes, and toothed on the margin, smooth and very 

 deep green above, and densely covered with a soft, close, 

 white down beneath. There are some varieties of this 

 species known abroad, with leaves more or less downy, etc. 

 Sir J. E. Smith remarks in his English Flora, that the wood, 

 though but little used, is much firmer than that of any other 

 British poplar ; making as handsome floors as the best 

 Norway fir, with the additional advantage that they will 

 not readily take fire, like any resinous wood. 



The English aspen (P. tremula) considerably resembles 

 our native aspen ; but the buds are somewhat gummy. 

 The Athenian poplar (P. Grceca) is a tree about 40 feet 

 high, with smaller, more rounded, and equally serrated 

 foliage. The common Black European poplar (P. nigra) 

 is also a large, rapidly growing tree, with pale-green leaves 

 slightly notched: the buds expand later than most other 

 poplars, and the young leaves are at first somewhat reddish 

 in color. The Necklace-bearing poplar (P. monilifera), so 

 called from the circumstance of the catkins being arranged 

 somewhat like beads in a necklace, is supposed to have 

 been derived from Canada, but there are some doubts 

 respecting its origin : in the south it is generally called the 

 Virginia poplar. 



The Lombardy poplar (P. dilatata), a native of the bankg 

 of the Po, where it is sometimes called the Cypress poplar 



