1798 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



sold in the United States by Ellwanger and Barry of Rochester under the name of 

 P. elegans} There is little doubt that this poplar was introduced into the United 

 States in the eighteenth century from England. 



3. Var. italica, Du Roi, Harbk. Baumz. ii. 141 (i772)- Lombardy Poplar. 



N2X. pyramidalis, Spach, in Ann. Sc. Nat. xv. 31 (1841). 

 Populus italica, Moench, Bdume Weissenstein, 79 (1785)- 

 Populus dilatata, Alton, Hort Kew. iii. 406 (1789). 

 Populus pyramidata, Moench, Meth. 339 (i794)- 

 Populus pyramidalis, Borkhausen, Forstbot. i. 541 (1800). 



Populus fastigiata, Poiret, in Lamarck, Encycl. v. 235 (1804); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit 

 iii. 1660 (1838). 



Branches directed nearly vertically upwards, forming a narrow fastigiate tree. 

 A sport of the typical glabrous variety of P. nigra, differing in no respect except 

 in habit. ^ The leaves are variable, many being the same as those of the ordinary 

 form ; but others are often broader than long, truncate or subcordate at the base, 

 with a short acuminate apex, due to increased vigour, as is usual in this species. 



The common Lombardy poplar is a staminate tree, always reproduced by 

 cuttings ; and for aught we know, all the numerous individuals planted throughout 

 the world may have originated from a single tree, as happened, without any doubt, 

 in the case of the upright form of the common yew. No instances of a second 

 origin have been recorded. 



A few trees ^ of similar habit, though with branches not quite so vertically 

 inclined, have been observed bearing pistillate flowers.* Plate 383, reproduced 

 from a photograph sent to us by the late Prof. W. Blasius, shows a remarkable 

 female tree at the village of Greene, near Kreiensen, in the Duchy of Brunswick, 

 which has ascending and not erect branches, and differs considerably in habit from 

 the ordinary Lombardy poplar. There is a good specimen at Kew with nearly erect 

 branches, about 50 feet high, which was covered with woolly catkins in 1908. It 

 produced flowers in the spring of 19 10, which did not, however, ripen into fruit 



1 This is referred to as a variety of P. nigra, commonly sold by nurserymen in the United States, by L. H. Bailey, 

 in Cornell Univ. Bull. Agric. No. 68, p. 227 (1894). 



2 I carefully compared in 1908, in Servia, the branchlets, foliage, and buds of a Lombardy poplar with those of some 

 wild common black poplars growing near it, and did not detect the slightest difference. The bark of some trees in this 

 region, and also in Algeria, is remarkably whitish ; while the colour of their third year and older twigs is peculiarly greyish. 

 This form has been named P. thevestina, Dode, in Mim. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun, xviii. 52 (1905). Siehe, in Mitt. Deut. 

 Dend. Ges. 1912, p. 123, describes the remarkable pale bark of the Lombardy poplar in Asia Minor. Cuttings were obtained 

 in Algeria by Mr. A. W. Hill in 1910, which are now growing in the nursery at Kew. Vigorous shoots from near the base 

 of old Lombardy poplars at Cambridge show the same coloration. 



2 Spenner, Fl. Friburg, i. 274 (1825), mentions a female tree near the Carthusian monastery at Friburg in Germany. 

 Another was reported to have been noticed in the University Botanic Garden at Gottingen in 1828 (cf. Denson, in Loudon, 

 Card. Mag. vi. 419 (1830)). Loudon, Derby Arboretum, 57 (1840), states that the female tree was introduced in 1840 

 into the Horticultural Society's garden from Monza near Milan. There is a specimen in the Kew Herbarium, sent from 

 Carlsruhe by A. Braun in 1845, and others undated, which are labelled Frankfort-on-Oder and Switzerland. Mr. W. L. Wood 

 also noticed, in 1910, two smaller trees with pistillate catkins growing in the Walpole Road, Twickenham. 



* P. fannonica, Kitaibel, ex Besser, PI. Enum. Volhynia, 38 (1822), and Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. Germ. xi. 30, t. 619 

 (184S) (figured with rhombic acuminate leaves), is possibly the correct name of the female Lombardy poplar. Besser, in Flora, 

 1832, ii. Suppl. 14, states that P. croatica, which was published at the same time as P. pannonica, is the name that should be 

 applied to the supposed cross between typical P. nigra and the Lombardy poplar, which grew in the Theresa garden at 

 Vienna, the sex of which is not mentioned. It was supposed to occur wild on the Dnieper. Zawadski, Enum. PI. Galic. 

 117 (1835), saw fine specimens of this on the Dniester in Podolia. Petzold and Kirchner, Arb. Muse. 593 (1864), state that 

 they received P. fastigiata, var. fannonica, from many sources, but never were able to discover any distinguishing characters. 

 Cf. also P. nigra, wax. pannonica, Dippel, Laubhohkunde, ii. 198 (1892). 



