WILLOWS AND POPLARS 



The whole process of this blooming was 

 interesting, curious, but hardly beautiful, and it 

 seemed to fit in with the restless character of 

 the poplar family — a family of trees with more 

 vigor than dignity, more sprightliness than 

 grace. As Professor Bailey says of the cotton- 

 wood, "It is cheerful and restive. One is not 

 moved to lie under it as he is under a maple 

 or an oak." Yet there are not wanting some 

 poplars of impressive character. 



One occurs to me, growing on a wide street 

 of my home town, opposite a church with a 

 graceful spire. This white or silver -leaved pop- 

 lar has for many years been a regular prey of 

 the gang of tree - trimmers, utterly without 

 knowledge of or regard for trees, that infests 

 this town. They hack it shamefully, and I 

 look at it and say, "Well, the old poplar is 

 ruined now, surely!" But a season passes, and 

 I look again, to see that the tremendous vigor 

 of the tree has triumphed over the butchers ; 

 its sores have been concealed, new limbs have 

 pushed out, and it has again, in its unusual 

 height, assumed a dignity not a whit inferior 

 to that of the church spire opposite. 



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