330 THE POPLAR. 
The deadly influence of the same malady was quite perceptible 
on some of the more tender exotic willows, and on some other 
kinds of vegetation. 
Recorded opinions of the tree.—Hitherto the genus Populus 
has been esteemed chiefly for its services in a living state, and 
writers on this tree have differed greatly respecting its appear- 
ance and worth. Gilpin says,—“ When the gentle breeze 
pressing upon the quivering poplar bends it only in easy 
motion, while a serene sky indicates the heavens to be at peace, 
there is nothing to act in concert with the tree. It seems to 
have taken its form from the influence of the sea-air, or some 
other malign impression, and, contracting an unnatural appear- 
ance, disgusts.” Muskau says, “ It is too fluttering.” Cobbett 
represents it as “ a great, ugly tree.” Evelyn seems fully to 
apprehend its value when he says, “It puts a guise of such 
antiquity upon any new enclosure, that whilst a man is on a 
voyage of no long continuance, his home and lands may be so 
covered as to be hardly known by him at his return.” And’ 
although some associate its appearance with the idea of an 
upstart, and despise it for want of the elegance of ramification, 
and the ancestral dignity of the British oak, yet in a good 
specimen of two or three of the species, the massive bole, and 
the magnitude of the branches, frequently command the respect 
of the beholder ; and we have the high authority of one of the 
first Greek writers in calling the tree beautiful—Homer—who 
compares the fall of Simoisius by the hand of Ajax to a poplar 
tree just cut down :— 
“So falls a poplar that in watery ground, 
Raised high its head, with stately branches crowned ; 
So down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread, 
With all its beauteous honours on its head.” 
Poplar Timber.—There is a great similarity in the timber 
of all the different species and varieties of the tree ; indeed, the 
difference in soil sometimes changes the appearance of the 
timber of the same species as much as the difference between 
one species and another. The appearance of the wood of all 
the species is white, with a yellowish tinge sometimes near 
