The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
VOL. Il. MARCH, 1911. NO: 2* 
NOTES ON POPULUS, PLINIUS. 
Ivar ‘TIDESTROM. 
IV. Populus tremula L. 
The European Quaking Aspen appears to have been known 
to the old Greeks under the name <zeez:s—a name which is still 
applied to the species in Greece. The name 2evxq (pronounced 
by modern Greeks “‘leffke’’) is also applied to the Quaking Aspen. 
Some pre-Linnaean authors have doubted the identity of Populus 
tremula with zepx:s although the tree appears to be common in 
certain parts of Greece, particularly in the mountain district. 
Halacsy (Consp. Fl. Gr. 3: 135, 1904) gives a number of localities 
where the tree has been found. One of these localities is the famed 
Mount Olympus in Thessaly. That so conspicuous a tree as the 
Aspen with its ever trembling leaves should have escaped a master 
like Theophrastus, is not likely. Furthermore, that author’s de- 
scription of zepzts points to Populus tremula. 
“Cercis similis est populo albae et magnitudine et surculorum 
albore; folium hederaceum sed parte altera sine angulo, altervus 
angulo oblongo in acumen contracto; colore supina et prona pagina 
similes: pedunculo affixum est longo tenuique, quamobrem folium 
non rectum sed inclinatum; cortex asperior quam populi albae et 
squamatus ut pirastri; sterilis est.’’ Theophr. Hist. Pl. 3: 14, 
2 (Wimmer Gr. & Latin text.) 
In Plini Historia Naturalis we find Populus tremula under the 
name Populus Libyca—a name which is still in use, although 
transformed, in Italy. Pioppo libico is one of several names 
applied to the Aspen in modern Italy. 
Possessing neither the stature nor the beauty of Populus alba 
this tree does not appear to have been an object of praise by poets 
March 15, 1911.—Pages 29 to 56. 
