DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 129 



lobes, and toothed on the margin, smooth and very deep 

 green above, and densely covered with a soft, close, white 

 down beneath. There are some varieties of this species 

 known abroad, with leaves more or less downy, etc. Sir J. E. 

 Smith remarks in his English Flora, that the wood, though 

 but little used, is much firmer than that of any other British 

 poplar; making as handsome floors as the best Norway fir, 

 with the additional advantage that they will not readily take 

 fire, like any resinous wood. 



The English aspen, (P. tremula,) considerably resembles 

 our native aspen ; but the buds are somewhat gummy. The 

 Athenian poplar, (P. Grceca^) is a tree about 40 feet high, 

 with smaller, more rounded, and equally serrated foliage. 

 The common Black European poplar, (P. nigra,) is also 

 a large, rapidly growing tree, with pale-green leaves slightly 

 notched : the buds expand later than most other poplars, and 

 the young leaves are at first somewhat reddish in colour. 

 The Necklace-bearing poplar, (P. 7?ionilifera,) so called from 

 the circumstance of the catkins being arranged somewhat 

 like beads in a neclilace, is supposed to have been derived 

 from Canada, but there ares ome doubts respecting its origin : 

 in the south it is generally called the Virginia poplar. 



The Lombardy poplar, (P. dUatata,) a native of the banks 

 of the Po, where it is sometimes called the Cypress poplar, 

 from its resemblance to that tree, is too well known among us 

 to need any description. Only one sex, the female, has 

 hitherto been introduced into this country ; and it has con- 

 sequently produced no seeds here, but has been entirely pro- 

 pagated by suckers from the root. 



The Horse-chestnut Tree. JEscuhis. 



Nat. Ord. TEsculacese. Lin. Syst. Heptandria, Monogynia. 



A large, showy, much admired ornamental tree, bearing 

 ample leaves composed of seven leaflets, and, in the month 



of May, beautiful clusters of white flowers, delicately mottled 



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