652 LOMBARDY POPLAR. 



midday they hang motionless, while lurid clouds gather up against 

 the wind. 



Then, with the rush of the storm, the slender stem is bowed, 

 and the branches to windward strain against its side, so that stem and 

 boughs together offer a simple curve to the onslaughts of the tempest ; 

 the ragged starting foliage is blown out to leeward and the upturned 

 leaves show almost white against the red lights and blue-black shadows 

 of the thunder-cloud. And as for the lights and shadows of the 

 passing hours so for the seasons, the Poplar leaf has its response ; red 

 is its colour for the spring, in summer a refreshing green ; in autumn 

 the tree has a crown of gold. 



RAMIFICATION. 



The arrangement of bud and leaf is modelled on a similar plan 

 to that of the Black Poplar, of which the Lombardy Poplar is a 

 variety. The striking difference in the general form of the two 

 trees is caused by their habits of growth, and not by a different 

 plan of construction. Both trees have active terminal and lateral 

 buds, which produce new shoots ; there is no dissimilarity in the 

 position of the buds, nor any constant unproductiveness in either species 

 (such as we have observed in many other cases), to account for this 

 difference of form. A branch of Black Poplar continues its growth 

 from the terminal bud and from the lateral buds on every side, the 

 former outstripping the latter. The branches as a rule tend outwards 

 and upwards ; some which lie horizontally produce hanging twigs. 

 On the Lombardy Poplar terminal and lateral shoots are also formed, 

 but they all tend upwards. The shoots which spring from the 

 inner side commonly die for want of space, for they are crowded 

 between branch and trunk. Even the terminal shoot soon becomes 



