634 



BLACK POPLAR. 



the bases of last year's leaf-petioles, which — to carry 

 on an architectural simile — project like crockets from 

 the pinnacle. From either side of the crocket a deep 

 groove starts, and is continued downwards for some 

 distance, so that the twig, instead of being rounded like 

 the twig of a Beech, or flattened like an Ash-twig, is 

 deeply fluted. But owing to the spiral arrangement of 

 the buds, the flutings do not make continuous lines, 

 but are broken off abruptly. 



Below the section of last season's growth, and in 

 a line with it (for the Poplars have true terminal 

 buds), is the twig of two seasons back. It is now 

 about six inches long, and knotted throughout its whole 

 length by the projecting petiole-bases. This portion 

 is coloured a pale brownish yellow, and looks just as 

 if it had been varnished. At its junction with the 

 wood formed in still earlier seasons, it bears only a 

 small side-branch ; in comparison with the continuous 

 lengthening of the twig through the terminal buds, 

 the growths of the lateral buds are of very little 

 account. The older wood is a dull dingy brown, and 

 the projections still remain, and form a kind of circlet 

 at the junction of branch and stem. In the Spring 

 the young shoot becomes lighter in colour, losing its 

 red-brown tint, and the buds stand away from it and 

 increase to an inch in length. The tip of one bud 

 just reaches to the base of the next. The buds are 

 very conspicuous, both on account or their size and 

 pyramidal form, and by comparison with the bareness 



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