THE ATHENIAN POPLAR. 



191 



the supposition, as Willdenow records it in his " Species 

 Plantarum" as a native of the islands of the Archipelago. 

 It appears, however, from 

 the account contained in the 

 " Nov. du Harney 1 and from 

 other evidence, that the 

 North American Continent 

 is its real native country, 

 and that growing abund- 

 antly in a particular town- 

 ship called Athens, it re- 

 ceived from it the imposing 

 and euphonious title of Athe- 

 nian Poplar. This origin 

 Loudon thinks the more pro- 

 bable from the circumstance of its having been first in- 

 troduced by Hugh, Duke of Northumberland, who served 

 in America during the co- 

 lonial war, and imported 

 from thence a great variety 

 of American trees, many of 

 which now adorn the grounds 

 at Sion House, and Alnwick 

 Castle, at which latter place 

 the original tree from 

 whence our own plants and 

 those disseminated in the 

 north of England are de- 

 rived, was first planted. It 

 is a tree of handsome ap- 

 pearance, with a stem rather 

 slender in proportion to its 

 height. The bark, until the 



