BLACK POPLAR. 647 



Only the shining reverse of the leaf-blade can be seen, for each leaf 

 is rolled inwards from the outer margin, and the earliest leaves 

 enclose those which are destined to a later development. 



As the leaves expand they at first stand upright, and show the 

 glossy bright yellow (or, in some varieties, the shining red) of the 

 upper surface, and a paler under surface, glossy also, coated with hairs 

 along the midrib and at the edge. When fully developed the leaf 

 is peculiar from having both sides nearly alike. The footstalks are 

 pale yellow, stout and hairy ; they are flattened in such a way that 

 the leaves, which hang vertically from them, quiver with the slightest 

 movement of the air. The leaves which are the last to unfold have 

 the edges slightly serrated. 



As summer passes on, the foliage changes its gloss for a dull, 

 uniform green, and in autumn is tinted with gold. 



THE BARK. 



The trunk of an old tree is marked with large excrescences, and 

 bears tufts of adventitious branchlets. It is covered with a dark grey- 

 coloured bark, deeply scored with irregular vertical cuts. The pro- 

 jecting ribs of bark between the cuts are rough and transversely 

 notched. 



THE BLACK POPLAR (Populus nigra). 



Poplars grow very rapidly, and in plantations will sometimes reach 

 a height of 50 feet in twenty years ; they flourish best near 

 water, and are undaunted by a pool - soil. The Poplar is considered to 

 he a naturalised tree, though it is not known when it was first imported. 

 The timber is soft, and ol little value lor general purposes. 



