Sexes and History of the Lombardy Poplar. 419 



ment for a rotten borough : they are taken little notice of. I 

 shall, therefore, give you my full name and address : so that, 

 if I have ever said any thing improper, I am fairly open to 

 conviction; and 



I am, Sir, &c. 



John Howden, 

 Bailiff, &c, to John Philips, Esq., 

 Heath House, near Cheadle, 

 March 5.1830. Staffordshire. 



Art. X. On the Sexes and History of tlie Lombardy, or Turin., 

 Poplar (Populus dilatdta). By Mr. John Denson, Jun.* 



Sir, 



While curator of the botanic garden at Bury St. Ed- 

 munds, I examined all the blooming specimens of Populus 

 dilatata which grew in the town and neighbourhood, in the 

 hope of acquiring both sexes for the collection of the garden. 

 I could, however, find only the male. I told this fact to Mr. 

 Sabine, on his visiting the garden, and understood him to 

 reply : " The female is not in this country. The Duke of 

 Argyle imported some statuary from Italy, to Whitton in 

 Middlesex, part of the package of which, on being planted, 

 disclosed Populus dilatata, male, and there has been no other 

 importation." I repeated this statement to a very intelligent 

 gentleman, W. C. Oldham, Esq., then (in the autumn of 1827) 

 residing at Rickinghall, near Diss, Norfolk, who could not 

 assent to its having been exclusively introduced as above 

 stated ; himself, and other gentlemen of his acquaintance, 

 having always understood that it was first brought to this 

 country by the Earl of Rochford, while he was ambassador to 

 the court of Turin, in 1751, and who established it at his 

 seat at St. Osyth, Essex. The Rev. S. Carter, and other 

 relations of the Rochford family, have also this impression ; 

 and Mr. Oldham once saw the very old gardener at the above 

 seat, who attested the truth of this notion, and that himself 

 was the person by whom the twigs of the poplar were planted. 

 They were incidentally sent over, as in Mr. Sabine's account ; 

 but, if Mr. Oldham rightly remembers, it was in this instance 

 as the package of orange trees. 



As to the fact of the importation of this species of poplar, 



* Mr. Denson's father is the author of A Peasant's Voice, &c, quoted 

 with so much applause in a late Number of the Quarterly Review. — Cond. 



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