CHAP. CHI. SALTCA^CEJE. 7'O'IMJLUS. 1669 



generally in France, and occasionally in Italy, is often a very beautiful and 

 natural accompaniment to buildings. " We have observed," he says," a very 

 whimsical effect produced by the long rows of these poplars in France, when 

 seen crowning a distant elevation, where they have had to us all the appear- 

 ance of an army drawn up ; and we remarked that this whimsical deception 

 very frequently occurred." (Landers Gi/pin, vol. i. p. 1 16.) Mr. Sang considers 

 the Lombardv poplar as a "very ugly tree;" a circumstance which we are 

 rather surprised at in so enlightened an observer. The prevalence of these 

 poplars in the vicinity of London, and other places in England, he says, he 

 found tiresome in the extreme. Cobbett asserts the poplars to be a " very 

 worthless family of trees;" and he adds, " That well-known, great, strong, ugly 

 thing, called the Lombardy poplar, is very apt to furnish its neighbours with a 

 surplus population of caterpillars, and other abominable insects." ( Woodlands.} 

 Poetical and legendary Allusions. Some authors make Lombardy poplars 

 the trees into which the sisters of Phaethon were changed. The unhappy 

 virgins, say they, in their despair, clasped their hands above their heads, till 

 they became fixed, and with the long hair which hung down and covered them 

 like a veil, changed into leaves and branches, from which their tears stream 

 incessantly. Notwithstanding the poetry of this idea, the Lombardy poplar 

 could not be the tree alluded to by Ovid ; since it has certainly been either 

 originated in, or introduced into, Italy at a comparatively modern period, and 

 consequently was not known to the ancients. The spiral form of this poplar, 

 and the manner in which it waves in one mass, have been noticed by several 

 of our modern poets. Leigh Hunt speaks of 



" The poplar's shoot, 



Which, like a feather, waves from head to foot;" 



and Barry Cornwall says, 



" The poplar there 



Shoots up its spire, and shakes its leaves i'the sun 

 Fantastical." 



The Isle of Poplars, in the Marquis de Girardin's gardens at Ermenonville, 

 is celebrated for having been the place chosen by Rousseau for his own 

 grave. The island is about 50 ft. long, and 30 ft. broad, and is situated 

 at one end of a large lake. The only trees planted on the island are Lombardy 

 poplars. A plan of the island may be seen in the Encyclopedia of Gardening, ed. 

 1835, p. 86. ; and a view of the island and the tomb forms the frontispiece 

 to Girardin's Essay on Landscape, &c. 



5 d 4- 



