THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



at the first lull. Think of the strain on its millions 

 of cells; of their elasticity and supple strength. 

 Compare them with the buildings erected by man, 

 and their superiority in tensile strength is immense. 

 On calm days the Lombardy Poplar may be con- 

 sidered stiff, even frigidly so, but in a storm its 

 grace and litheness are unmistakably shown. 



And why the name Lombardy Poplar? All the 

 trees of this Poplar are male, and the accepted view 

 is that they have all descended by vegetative propa- 

 gation from a single tree which originated on the 

 banks of the River Po in northern Italy, probably 

 early in the i8th century. It is not mentioned by 

 mediaeval Italian writers nor by travellers in Italy 

 during the 17th century. An i8th century writer, 

 Jean Frangois Seguier in his " Plantae Veronensis" 

 II, 267 (1745), says it was known anciently in 

 Lombardy and mentions a superb avenue which he 

 saw in 1 703 at Colorno, the residence of the Duke of 

 Parma. It was apparently carried by the Genoese to 

 the Levant, and by 1 798 it was known to be abundant 

 on the plains of Damascus. It has, indeed, been 

 widely planted in northern Africa, Egypt, in south- 

 western Asia, and is common in Asia Minor, Persia, 

 Afghanistan, and Kashmir. In Turkestan a fastigiate 

 form of the White Poplar (P. alba) has by some 

 travellers been mistaken for it. It has reached China, 



230 



