1288 POPULUS. "CLASS XXII. ORDER VI. 
A tall erect tree, with a round clean trunk, the bark smooth, be- 
coming grey, and cracked with age, its branches spreading, becoming 
pendulous, the young branches slender, reddish, smooth or hairy. 
Leaves roundish, with a short point, and serrated, with broad often 
unequal teeth, a dark smooth, green above, somewhat paler beneath, 
and downy when young, the footstalks vertically compressed. Catkins 
long, lax, pendulous, the barren ones with deep cut hairy brown 
scales, and about eight stamens, the fertile ones with the scales cut in 
a palmate manner, and usually more hairy. Germen roundish, 
enveloped at the base with the perianth. Stigmas four, bright 
crimson. 
Habitat—Moist woods ; frequent in Scotland, growing even at an 
elevation of fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, on Ben 
More, in Mull.— Mr. Trevelyan. 
Tree ; flowering in March and April. 
The Aspen is a rapid-growing tree, soon attaining maturity, and of 
short duration. It appears to be one of the more generally dis- 
tributed trees, being found in all parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and 
Caucasus. It is very abundant in Russia, is common about Constan- 
tinople, and in Greece. 
The wood is white and soft, and is used by turners, coopers, 
sculptors, engravers, &c.; is is also much used in the making of 
trays, clogs, wooden vessels, &e. For building purposes it is not 
much esteemed, and whenever it is used it must be put in a dry 
part of the building ; if it is exposed to moisture it soon decays. As 
a fuel it is not good or pleasant in open fires, but for heating ovens it 
is one of the best. The bark is sometimes used, like that of the other 
species for tanning, and according to Linneeus the favourite food of 
beavers. Dried and powdered, in doses of half a pound, it is said to be 
a useful vermifuge for horses. In Russia, according to Pallas, a de- 
coction of it is used in domestic medicine in scorbutic and other cases. 
The leaves are a favourite food of cattle, sheep, and goats; and in 
France, Germany, &c., they are given to them both green and when 
dried, as winter provender. So nicely balanced are the leayes on 
their compressed footstalks, that, as the poet says— 
“When zephyrs wake, 
The Aspen’s trembling leaves must shake.” 
The constant quivering motion of the leaves renders the Aspen tree 
a favourite subject of poets. Sir W. Scott alludes to it in the follow- 
ing lines :— 
“Oh, woman! in our hours of ease 
Uncertain, coy and hard to please, 
And variable as the shade 
By the light quivering Aspen made, 
When pain or sickness rends the brow, 
A ministering angel thou,” 
