208 populus. 



space it occupies from its close fastigiate growth, and its 

 patient endurance of smoke, it is a tree peculiarly adapted 

 to ornament cities, towns, and villages, and we should 

 therefore like to see it more freely planted than it has 

 hitherto been, at least in the North of England and Scot- 

 land. Around our country residences its use should he 

 much more restricted than in urban scenes, though its 

 introduction is often attended with the happiest effect, 

 and indeed almost necessary to break the monotony of 

 horizontal lines formed by ornamental plantations of round- 

 headed trees ; but, as we have previously hinted, judgment 

 and taste must be consulted in their disposition, so as to 

 produce the best and wished-for effect. At the period 

 Grilpin wrote his " Forest Scenery," the Lombardy Poplar 

 had not been long introduced ; he speaks, however, in 

 favourable terms, of the young trees growing in the park 

 at Blenheim, then scarce twenty years old, and notices 

 a beauty almost peculiar to itself, viz. the waving line 

 it forms when agitated by the wind, and which he aptly 

 compares to that of an ostrich feather on a lady's head, 

 moving in one simple sweep from the top to the bottom, 

 or, as Leigh Hunt poetically describes it, — 



■ ■ ■ " The poplar's shoot, 



Which, like a feather, waves from head to foot ;" 



and not partially agitated, as is the case with most other 

 trees. 



It is sometimes planted so as to form a hedge in nurseries, 

 and being cut even at a certain height, and regularly 

 trimmed, becomes a thick and verdant fence ; Loudon 

 also recommends it as an excellent tree for sheltering fields 

 or gardens in a flat country, in this case certainly more 

 useful than picturesque. 



It is propagated by cuttings of the young wood which 



