THE GREY POPLAR. 457 
to leaf, between the present species and Populus 
alba, is that the former is not so white on its 
under side as Alba—the downy covering having 
more of a greyish hue, and hence perhaps its 
name. The leaf of the Grey Poplar, too, is not so 
deeply lobed as that of the ‘ white’ species, and it 
is distinctly rounder in shape. A close examina- 
tion, too, of its cylindrical catkins will show that 
their stigmas—which are eight in number, whilst 
those of Alba are in number only four—spread 
away, unlike the other species, in two opposite 
directions, and the bracts of the fertile flowers are 
more deeply cut, and are also more regular. The 
timber of Canescens, too, is considered to be both 
harder and more durable than that of the White 
Poplar, though, in both, the wood is whiter than 
in any of the other species in the genus Populus. 
