462 AMENTACEa3- [Populus. 



1645. fig. 1509. Fl. Dan. xiii. t. 2134. Giiimp. und Hayne, Ah- 

 bild. der Deutsch. Holtzart. ii. 266, t. 203. 



In moist woods and thickets, especially in a stiff clayey soil ; frequent. Fl. 

 February, March. Fr. May. Tj . 



E. Med. — Abundant in Quarr copse, and on the wet slipped land along the 

 shore between E,yde and the Priory, &c. Shanldin chine. About Aldermoor 

 common, frequent. In Firestone copse. In Beckett's or Buckett's copse, be- 

 tween Osborne and Barton farm, are some very fine aspens, of great height and 

 size. 



W. Med. — Frequent about Cowes. Stopler's copse, Nunswood copse, and else- 

 where about Yarmouth, abundantly. 



A tree, with us, in the wild state usually rather under the middle size, with a 

 straight and slender trunk for its height, long, flexile, smooth and ash-gray 

 branches, of which the lowermost at least are pendulous, the bark on young trees 

 white and smooth, the older ones grayish, chapped or rifted. Leaves alternate, 

 when young roundish ovate or subdeltoid, pointed or even acuminate, sharply and 

 unevenly sinuato-dentate, tinged with reddish brown, and as well as the petioles 

 clothed with close-pressed silky pubescence, especially beneath; at length gla- 

 brous, nearly orbicular, from about l^ inch to 2^ inches wide, and scarcely if at 

 all longer, broadly, unequally, shallowly and very obtusely sinuato-dentate, the 

 teeth rounded, or towards the slightly cordate or truncate base somewhat incurved 

 or uncinate, dull bright green above, paler beneath, slightly acuminate, the mar- 

 gins somewhat fringed with soft downy hairs. Petioles 1 inch to 2^ inches long, 

 at length glabrouii, strongly compressed laterally. Stipules long, linear or subu- 

 late, soon falling. Flowers produced before the leaves irom brown, shining, scaly 

 and glutinous buds * at the end of short lateral spurs or shoots, which are some- 

 times hairy at the tips. Staminate catkins stouter and more lax than the pistil- 

 late, expanding a little earlier, sometimes nearly .3 inches long, hoary, not rufous, 

 their axes downy. Floral bracts as in the pistillate. Perianth jnuch more ob- 

 lique, scarcely at all tubular, very evidently pedicellate. Stamens in some of my 

 specimens about 10 or 12, in others 6 or 8 ; anthers bright piirphsh, of 2 distinct 

 oblong lobes bursting by a deep lateral fissure; pollen white, globular. Pistillate 

 catkins 2 — 5 together, oblong or at length cylindrical, drooping, rufous-gray, 

 scarcely 2 inches long when full-grown, very silky, their scales (or bracts) wedge- 

 shaped, blackish brown or fuscous, deeply palmato-laciniate, with acute thickly 

 fringed segments, longer than the smooth pale-green perianth, which is on a veiy 

 short and, like the axis, hairy pedicel. Germen as long as the perianth, ovato- 

 globose, smooth, with a furrow on each side. Stigmas 4, bright crimson, nearly 

 erect, slightly diverging only in two pairs, each (in all the specimens I can col- 

 lect in this island) expanded into a broad, irregular, waved and crenate lobe, in 

 shape resembling a cock's-comb or the fleshy inflorescence of Celosia cristata. 

 Capsules much like those of some willows, ovato-oblong, laterally compressed, 

 green and glabrous, about 3 lines in length ; in all the specimens I have exa- 

 mined filled merely with a white cottony down, or producing 1 or 2 oblong and 

 apparently imperfect seeds, of a pale yellowish colour and downy. 



I found in a male catkin of this species, from Beckett's copse, near Cowes, in 

 March, 1843, several hermaphrodite flowers, the stigmas in which were fully 

 formed and of the usual size. 



The difference in the shape of the stigmas from that usually assigned them, 

 and as represented in the figures referred to, only prove how variable are these 

 organs as regards form, and perhaps, as we shall see, in respect of number also. 

 In my specimens the stigmas are constantly 4, but instead of being linear or awl- 

 shaped, as Smith describes and Sowerby figures them, they are invariably lobed 

 and notched as above stated. In the plate of this species in Fl. Danica the 

 stigmas approach those of my specimens in form, but are much more simple or 



I have observed these buds to smell strongly of malt. 



