WILLOW FAMILY 



the fall of Sinioisius when killed by Ajax to that of a 

 poplar. 



So falls a poplar that on watery ground 



Raised high its head with stately branches crowned. 



Ovitd mentions that Paris had carved the name of .l^none 

 on a poplar, as Shakespeare makes Orlando carve the name 

 of Rosalind upon the trees of the forest of Arden. 



Virgil gives directions for the culture of this tree and Hor- 

 ace speaks of the White Poplar as delighting to grow on the 

 banks of rivers. 



LOMBARDY POPLAR 



PSpiiliis lU'^ra ildlica. 



The poplar th^re 

 Shoots up its spire, and shakes its lea\'es i' the sun. 



— Barrn' Cornw.^ll. 



The Lombard}- Poplar was the first ornamental ti'ee intro- 

 duced into the United States. A century ago it was ex- 

 tremely fashionable, and although it has fallen from its high 

 estate, nevertheless, it is by no means to be despised. Two 

 things it can do. It can make a narrow leafy wall sooner and 

 more satisfactorily than any other tree, and it can grow bv the 

 roadside and not shade the street. It is the onlv deciduous 

 tree whose branches hug the stem and resulting from that is 

 its peculiar spiry shape, which is individual. When the wind 

 blows, unlike other trees that wave in parts, it waves in one 

 simple sweep from top to bottom. 



The poplar shoot 

 Which like a feather wa\-e5 from heatl to foot. 



— Leigh Hunt. 



The native home of the Lombardy Poplar has been a sub- 

 ject of much discussion, but good opinion now is that it orig- 

 inated in Afghanistan. It is said to grow wild in a forest 

 near Cabul at an elevation of 7,500 feet above the level of the 

 sea. In early times it was cultivated in western Asia, 



432 



