TREES IN NATURE 93 



simply as trees or bushes without noticing them 

 unless there is some special reason for doing 

 so." To this the alder might reply meekly, 

 yet with force, that although it may have no 

 special beauty, it helps to make our valleys 

 much more beautiful than they would be with- 

 out its aid. 



The trees we have noted so far are those 

 that give general character to our landscape in 

 most parts of the country. They form the 

 staple of our woods and parks ; they are the 

 most familiar trees by our road-sides, and in 

 the hedgerows that divide our fields. They 

 are massy in form, and have a rounded out- 

 line. They give to a well-wooded country, if 

 seen from a slight eminence, a billowy appear- 

 ance. The trees we have now to study are 

 more rarely to be seen, and are different in 

 form. 



First among them we take the poplar, 

 which, like the willow and the alder, thrives 

 best in the valleys — it is, in fact, so the botan- 

 ists tell us, closely related to the willow. Two 

 varieties, the white poplar, which is indigenous 

 in this country, and the black poplar, which is 

 an importation, come near to the majority of 



