THE ASPEN. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



HE wind in the trees, how fascinating and how familiar 

 a sound : less familiar perhaps to some is the thought 

 that every tree yields its leaves and branches to the 

 sport or the winds in a different and a characteristic way. 

 The breeze is very soft and light, not enough to stir a twig, but 

 enough to make the leaves of the Poplars spin in half circles on 

 their thin stalks : their margins, as they sway to and fro, cleave the 

 air now on this side now on that : they dance shimmering in the 

 sunlight ; at one moment there is a glint of white from their under- 

 blades and the next a gleam of reflected brightness from the gloss 

 above. A white ripple follows the path of the wind over the willow 

 foliage, as the leaves are upturned and the pliant branches sway and 

 creak. Before rain and storm the Sycamore also turns up the paler 

 tints of its heavy greenery, and the Whitebeam justifies its name. 

 Only the Oak and the Holly are indifferent, and the breezes woo 

 leaf and twig vainly and without response. But the Elm leaves keep 

 together, and move as one on the twig when the gust meets them, 

 and the boughs nod and jog from side to side. So with blurred or 

 sharp leaf-edges, with movements graceful or tremulous, rapid or 

 stately, year in year nut, unceasingly, the trees make play with the 

 wind. 



THE ASPEN (Populus Tremula). 



Two forms of the Aspen are commonly found. The one, a 



mill hrubby tree, straggles in hedge and copse, and shows small 



unpuckered leaves oi a light green. I lie foliage is uniformly smooth, 



the surfaces neither shining nor woolly, only the upper one slightly 



darker than tin- lower. The leal is about the same size as that of 



