The Poplars. 121 



given rise also to the generic name of Popiilus, or peopk, as re- 

 presenting the restless, moving, whispering crowd of the popu- 

 lace. Glancing in the bright sunlight, nothing could be more 

 beautiful than the tremulous motion, of the leaves of the aspen, 

 but to a person unused to the sound, nothing is more weird than 

 the continual rustling and whispering of the foliage when the 

 silence of night has fallen. To the uninitiated it is continual 

 presage of a rain shower, or, if he be of an imaginative tempera- 

 ment, he may endow the' trees with life and hear strange mutter- 

 ings in an unknown tongue. There is a tradition that the wood 

 of the cross was taken from this tree, and that it is in consequence 

 of this that it is always trembling with shame. Among the 

 French Canadians the aspen is regarded with a superstitious 

 reverence, and they do not care to use it for ordinar}- purposes. 

 Populas tremiiloides is the most widel}- distributed tree of 

 North America, springing up easily everywhere, but the north 

 seems to be its natural habitat, for there it reaches its best de- 

 velopment. In Eastern Canada and the north eastern states it 

 rarely exceeds fifty feet in height. In the western prairie region 

 it reaches a height of sometimes one hundred feet, witli as great 

 a diameter as three feet at the ground, although the average is 

 not more than twelve to eighteen inches. The wood is close- 

 grained but soft, and neither strong nor durable. In the east it 

 is made into wood pulp for the manufacture of paper, and in the 

 west is employed for general purposes. It forms the most con- 

 venient fuel for many of the northern districts and has an impor- 

 tant place in the economy of nature. Germinating quickly and 

 growing rapidly, it forms a cover for denuded soil, and gives 

 protection to the young trees of longer-livc^ species. 



The leaves are broadly ovate and abruptly pointed at the 

 tips. The edges are serrate with small teeth. Tine foliage is 

 dark green on the upper surface, and in the autumn changes to 

 a golden yellow, which lights up the sombre northern landscapes 

 in a most beautiful way. The llovvers. as with other species of 

 the poplar, appear in the .spring in aments or catkins, the fertile 

 and infertile flowurs being separate. The light bark often makes 

 it difficult at a distance to distinguish this tree from white birch. 



Growing commonly with the Aspen Poplar, but not so num- 



