BLACK ITALIAN, OR NECKLACE-BEARING POPLAR. 



199 



and of which kind Loudon conjectures it may possibly 

 be an improved variety, are as follow: — annual shoots 

 more or less angular, the 

 branches becoming round 

 after the first year ; leaves 

 deltoid, glabrous, except 

 the edge, which when 

 young is ciliated, gene- 

 rally subcordate at the 

 base, serrated, the serra- 

 tures with incurved points, 

 tip pointed and acute, 

 ]:>etioles compressed at the 

 upper part, slender, gene- 

 rally as long- as the disk 

 of the leaves. Catkins of 

 the male five or six inches long, the flowers upon pedicles, 

 stamens sixteen. Female with about forty flowers in a 

 catkin, stigmas four, dilated and jagged. 



Although bearing the name of Black Italian Poplar, 

 it is still a matter of uncertainty to what country it really 

 belongs, as no direct proof of its having been found in 

 a wild and natural state, either in Europe, upon the 

 American continent, or elsewhere, has yet been produced. 

 There seems no doubt, however, of its having been first 

 introduced into Britain from North America, first in 1772 

 by Dr. John Hope, who brought it from Canada, and 

 again by a Scotch gentleman, a few years afterwards, 

 from whom it was obtained by the Messrs. Dickson, 

 Nurserymen at Hazendean, who first brought it prominently 

 into notice and extensive cultivation, and to whom it is 

 also indebted for its present name ; Mr. Archibald Dick- 

 son having understood that it was a species common to 



