244 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



lopsided crown. In large aspens the main stem runs up very 

 high, and the lateral boughs do not diverge until near its top, 

 then forming a rounded head. The bark of these large 

 specimens, as of white poplars or abeles, is usually of a 

 silvery white, but scarred with rough vertical cracks. Aspens 

 also occur as spare, slight trees from twenty to forty feet high, 

 with smooth grey bark. The Lombardy poplar, with its 

 close upright growth, make a remarkable contrast with the 

 broad and rounded outlines of the black poplar, of which it 

 is a variety. No English tree has a more magnificent 

 development of root- buttresses, in proportion to the thickness 

 of the trunk. Its slenderness and great height necessitate 

 these living props to safeguard the great columns of verdure, 

 gazing far across fen and plain. 



Willows and alders are often found growing in the same 

 low moist ground as poplars and aspens. The species and 

 varieties of willows are very numerous ; but the only common 

 species which reaches the full stature of a tree is the crack 

 willow, with its long, bright green leaves, paler underneath, 

 but not so silvery white as those of some scarcer kinds. 

 This is the willow which is usually pollarded ; and pollard 

 willows are even more recognisable in winter than in summer, 

 whether their knobbed heads are close polled, or bushy with 

 the straight stems of several years' growth. When the crack 

 willow is let grow freely in suitable soil, it forms a fine and 

 individual tree. The trunk and the main boughs are massive 

 and free-growing ; the boughs have a tendency to sprawl 

 abroad and become top-heavy, like those of the black poplar, 

 but to a much less extent. The frequency with which 

 straggling branches break off in stormy weather has given 

 this willow its special name ; but it is a less fragile tree than the 

 poplar, and the freedom of its growth makes it very attractive. 

 The tracery of the branches and outer twigs is very open and 



