BLACK POPLAR. 197 



The capsules or seed vessels of the female are round, 

 and contain a pure white cottony down, in which the 

 seeds are enveloped ; attempts to turn this substance to 

 profit in the manufacture of hats, cloth, and paper, have 

 been made, but owing- to the shortness and want of elas- 

 ticity of its fibre, without much success. 



As in several other species, the buds are protected by 

 a gummy varnish, having an agreeable smell, and which 

 formed the ungumtwrn pojmleon, or profitable ointment of 

 Gerard ; Loudon also mentions that after being macerated 

 in boiling water, bruised in a mortar, and pressed, they 

 yield a fatty substance, which burns like wax, and emits 

 a fine odour. 



Several of the caterpillars we have already mentioned as 

 feeding upon the leaves of other poplars, are also found 

 upon this tree ; it also produces protuberances of varied 

 form and shape upon the petioles of the leaves and young 

 shoots, which are the nidi of the Aphis populi. Among the 

 statistics of existing trees mentioned in the " Arboretum 

 Britannicum," are several from seventy to eighty feet high, 

 and one upwards of ninety, with a trunk of more than 

 five feet in diameter. It is readily propagated by cuttings 

 or truncheons, which may either be inserted at once, where 

 they are intended to remain, or rooted for a season in 

 the nursery. 



