THE LOMBAEDY POPLAE. 



Theee are not many trees that take tlie shape of a 

 long spire ; but Nature, who presents to our eyes an ever- 

 charming variety of forms as well as colors, has given us 

 this figure in the arbor-vitse, the juniper, and the Lom- 

 bardy Poplar. This was the species which was cultivated 

 by the Eomans, the classic Poplar of Eome and Athens. 

 To this tree Ovid alludes when he describes the resi- 

 nous drops from the Poplar as the tears of Phaeton's 

 sisters, who were transformed iato poplars. Smith says : 

 " Groves of poplar and willow exhibit this phenomenon, 

 even in England, in hot calm weather, when drops of 

 clear water trickle from their leaves like a slight shower 

 of rain." 



The Lombardy Poplar is interesting to thousands in 

 this country, who were- familiar with it in their youth 

 as an ornament of roadsides, village lanes, and avenues. 

 It was once a favorite shade-tree, and still retains its 

 privileges in some ancient homesteads. A century ago, 

 great numbers of Lombardy Poplars were planted by 

 village waysides, in front of dwelling-houses, on the bor- 

 ders of public grounds, and particularly in avenues lead- 

 ing to houses that stand at some distance from the high 

 road. A row of these trees is even now suggestive of an 

 approach to some old mansion, that stOl retains its primi- 

 tive simplicity. 



Great numbers of Lombardy Poplars were destroyed at 

 the beginning of this century, from the notion that they 

 generated a poisonous worm or caterpDlar. But some of 



