1668 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



1,530 



was dry and dusty, while it was quite otherwise with the line of a few Lom- 

 bardy poplars ; for from them it rained so plentifully, and so fast, that any 

 one of them might have been used as an admirable shower-bath, and the con- 

 stant stream of water supplied by the aggregate would (properly directed) have 

 sufficed to turn an ordinary mill." (Mag. Nat. Hist.,\o\. iv. p. 34.) 



In British nurseries, hedges for shelter are frequently formed of the Lom- 

 bardy poplar ; in which case they are cut over at a certain height, and regularly 

 cut in on each side, so as to form a verdant wall, 8ft. or 10ft. high, 18 in. 

 wide at bottom, and 6 in. wide at top. It is an excellent tree for sheltering 

 or shading either fields or gardens in a flat country ; but care must be taken 

 to plant it at a sufficient distance ; and, where shelter is wanted without shade, 

 not to introduce it on the south side of any garden or orchard, unless at a 

 distance of at least twice its ordinary height. 



The Lombardy poplar, when Gilpin wrote his Forest Scenery, which was 

 previously to 1780, had been only seen by that agreeable writer as a young 

 tree. " Within these few years," he says, " the Lombardy poplar, which graces 

 the banks of the Po, has been much introduced in English plantations. It 

 seems to like a British soil, and its youth is promising ; but I have never seen 

 it in full maturity. Its conic form, as a deciduous tree, is peculiar. Among 

 evergreens, we find the same character in the cypress ; and both trees, in many 

 situations, have a good effect. The cypress, often, among the ruins of ancient 

 Rome, breaks the regularity of a wall or a pediment, by its conic form : and 

 the poplar on the banks of the Po, no doubt, has the .same effect among its 

 deciduous brethren, by forming the apex of a clump ; though I have been 

 told that, in its age, it loses its shape, and spreads more into a head. The 

 oldest poplars of this kind I have seen are at Blenheim. They are not old 

 trees, but are very tall, and, I believe, still preserve their spiry form. One 

 beauty the Italian poplar possesses, which is almost peculiar in itself; and 

 that is the waving line it forms when agitated by the wind. Most trees, in 

 this circumstance, are partially agitated : one side is in rest, while the other is 

 in motion. But the Italian poplar waves in one simple sweep from the top 

 to the bottom, like an ostrich feather on a lady's head. All the branches 

 coincide in the motion : but, in painting, I know not that I should represent 

 any kind of motion in a tree, except that of a violent storm. When the blast 

 continues for some time, when the black heavens are in unison with it, and 

 help to tell the story, an oak straining in the wind is an object of picturesque 

 beauty ; but when the gentle breeze, pressing upon the quivering poplar, 

 bends it only in easy motion, while a serene sky indicates the heavens to be 

 at peace, there is nothing to act in concert with the motion of the tree: it 

 seems to have taken its form from the influence of a sea air, or some other 

 malign impression; and, exhibiting an unnatural appearance, disgusts. One 

 thing more I should mention with regard to the Italian poplar ; which is, that, 

 although it sometimes has a good effect when standing singly, it generally has a 

 better when two or three are planted in a clump." (Forest Scenery, vol.i. p. 58.) 



The Lombardy poplar, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes, though extremely 

 fatiguing to the eye when it lines the road for many miles, as it does very 



