238 



TREES GROWING IN SANUY SOIL. 



tiers we find the dwarf thorn. Either in bloom or in fruit it is 

 a pleasing, cheery sight, and it makes no secret of its family 

 traits. The one delicate flower, — but rarely are two found, — 

 that snuggles among the bright green leaves, or the solitary 

 fruit, is an indication of its species, and it is also a shrub. 

 Only along the banks of the Appalachicola River in Florida 

 does it become arborescent. 



It is always a gay time of the year when the hawthorns 

 blow. The pageant of colour is then wending its way to its 

 height of glory, and from the lowlands, the thickets and the 

 swamps are seen the flowering trees and shrubs. Mountain 

 sides are transformed into huge bouquets. The air is soft, and 

 summer has come again. 



AMERICAN ASPEN. WHITE POPLAR. QUAKING ASP. 



{Plate CXXIX.) 

 Pdpulus treinulo\des. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Willoxu. Round-topped, synnnetriciil. 2o-io-iooJ'eet. General. April. 



Bark: nearly black at the base; rough and broken, and having brownish 

 blotches under the branches. Braiulilets : greenish white; smooth; bitter. 

 Leaves: simple; alternate; with yellow petioles which are flattened sideways; 

 broadly-ovate or semi-nrbicular ; rounded or abruptly pointed at the apex and 

 cordate at the base ; sharply and regularly serrate ; dark green and lustrous 

 above at maturity, yellowish green and glabrous underneath, but downy along 

 the edges ; when young covered with tomentum. Kibs ; whitish or pale yellow. 

 Flmvers : dioecious; growing in drooping catkins and appearing before the 

 leaves. The scales of the catkins silky, and having from three to five linear 

 lobes. 



The mythological legend concerning the poplars comes up- 

 permost in the mind when watching the ceaselessly trembling 

 leaves of this species. 



After Phaeton had been hurled into the river Eridanus by 

 the thunderbolts of Jupiter, for the peril he had caused by at- 

 tempting to drive his father's chariot, his three sisters, the 

 Heliades, greatly lamented. They ever sat by the river's edge 

 and wrung their hands while their tears ceaselessly flowed. At 

 last such sorrow touched the compassion of the gods, who 



