PopuluS.] AMENTACE^. 463 



regular, widely spreading and even reflexed, scarcely at all lobed, nor are they, any 

 more than in mine, furuished with a basal auricle like those mentioned by Smith 

 and drawn in ' English Botany.' In this last work the floral bracts are in the 

 separate figure represented as glabrous, doubtless through the omission of the 

 engraver. 



Sir W. Hooker, in his ' British Flora,' remarks that the Scottish Highlanders 

 entertain a superstitious reverence lor the Aspen, believing our Saviour's cross to 

 have been made of its wood, in consequence of which its leaves can never rest;* 

 but a more unlikely tree than this can hardly be imagined to inhabit the warm 

 and dry re^iou of Judaea, where, if existing at all, it must be sought for exclu- 

 sively on the highest mountains. So closely allied are Ignorance and Supersti- 

 tion, that enlightening the one is the only sure way to eradicate the other. 



The provincial word Apse, for this tree, gave rise, I presume, to the names of 

 several places so called in this island, as Apse farm, Apse heath, &c. 



** Scales of catkins glabrous, ciliated at the apex. Catkins in fruit lax, monili- 

 fnrm. Stamens 8 — 30. Stigmas reniform or roundish, cremated, some- 

 times '2-lohed at the apex. Aigeirus. 



fS. V. nigra, lu. Black Poplar. " Leaf-buds glabrous viscous, 

 leaves ovato-deltoid or rbomboid cuspidate pointed crenate or 

 serrated quite glabrous on both sides, stipules ovate acuminated 

 stigmas roundish 2-lobed at the apex." — Br. Fl. p. 401. E.B. t. 

 1910. Guimpel. und Hayne, Abbild. der Deutsch. Holtsart. ii. 268, 

 t. 204. 



On the banks of rivers and in moist low ground, but doubtful if really indige- 

 nous. Fl. April. Tj. 



E. Med. — On the point (Watch-house point) near the Priory, but probably 

 planted ; also on wet clay along the shore between Sea View and the mouth of Bra- 

 ding harbour. Near Steephill, apparently wild, and a tree or two between Nin- 

 ham farm and the Newport road, in the wooded ground along the brook, to all 

 appearance of natural growth ; as also on wet laud near the shore a litde W. of 

 Cowes. A few trees in a wood near Cliff farm, but very uncertainly indigenous, 

 as a solitary horse-chestnutf grew in the same wood. 



W. Med. — A tree or two near Medham. 



* A similar superstition is prevalent in Wales, which is beautifully adverted to 

 by Mrs. Hemans in her poem of the ' Wood Walk and Hymn :' — 



" Oh ! a cause more deep, 



More solemn far, the rustic doth assign 

 To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves ! 

 The cross he deems, the blessed cross, whereon 

 The meek Redeemer bow'd his bead to death. 

 Was framed of Aspen wood ; and since that hour 

 Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down 

 A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe, 

 Making them tremulous when not a breeze 

 Disturbs the airy thistle down, or shakes 

 The light lines of the hairy gossamer.'' 



t I have sometimes thought that exotic occasionally propagates itself sponta- 

 neously in this country. 



