822 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
Flowers brown ; March and April. Seeds ripe; May. Decaying leaves 
dark brown or black. 
Varieties. 
¥ P. t. 2 péndula. P.péndula Lodd. Cat. 1836; P. supina Lodd. Cat. 
ed. 1836. (The plate of this variety in our first edition, vol. vil.) —The 
only distinct variety of P. trémula that exists in the neighbourhood of 
London. ; 
+ 3 P.t. 3levigata. P. levigata Ait. Hort. Kew., Lodd. Cat. ed. 1836.— 
Leaves shining, rather larger than in the species. 
A rapid-growing tree, rather exceeding the middle size, with a straight clean 
trunk, tall m proportion to its thickness; and a smooth bark, which becomes 
grey, and cracks with age. The branches, which extend horizontally, and 
are not very numerous, at length become pendulous. The young shoots are 
tough, pliant, and ofa reddish colour; and both the wood and the leaves vary 
exceedingly, according to the dryness or moisture of the soil in which the 
tree is grown. The young shoots and leaves, produced in the form of suckers 
from the roots, are greedily eaten by cattle and sheep. The roots, from their 
nearness to the surface, impoverish the land, and prevent anything else from 
growing on it luxuriantly; and the leaves destroy 
the grass. The wood weighs, when green, 54 lb. 
6 oz.; half-dry, 40 lb. 8 0z.; and quite dry, 34 Jb. 
1 0z.: it consequently loses two fifths of its weight 
by drying. It shrinks by this operation one sixth 
part of its bulk, and cracks and splits in an extreme 
degree. The wood is white and tender: and it is 
employed by turners; by coopers, for herring casks, 
milk-pails, &c. ; by sculptors, and engravers ; and 
by joiners and cabinet-makers ; and for various 
minor uses, such as clogs, butchers’ trays, pack- 
saddles, &c. As the roots of this tree chiefly 
extend close under the surface of the ground, it is 
better adapted for soils that are constantly wet y 
below, than almost any other tree, since its roots, aaa Beas 
by keeping so very near the surface, are never out 
of the reach of the air, which they would be if they penetrated into soil 
perpetually saturated with water. Propagated by cuttings, but not so readily as 
most other species. Wherever trees are found, they generally throw up suckers 
from which plants may be selected ; or cuttings of the roots may be made use of. 
* 4, P. (v.) tre’piwa Willd. The North American trembling-leaved 
‘ Poplar, or American Aspen. 
ident incatien: Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 803.; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. 
Pp. a 
Synonyme. P, tremuldides Michx. North Amer. Sylva 2. p. 241., N. 
Du Ham. 2. p. 184. 
The Sexes. A plant of the female is in the London Horticultural 
Society’s arboretum, where it flowered in April, 1835, though only 
5or 6 feet high. The stigmas were 6 or 8. 
Engravings. N.Du Ham., 2. t. 53.3 Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 2. 
t. 99. f. 1.5 and our jig. 1495. 
Spec. Char., §c. Disk of leaf suborbiculate, except 
having an abruptly acuminate point; toothed; having 
two glands at its base on the upper surface ; silky 
while young, afterwards glabrous. Bud resinous. 
Petiole compressed. Disk of leaf toothed with 
hooked teeth, ciliate. Catkins silky. (Mich.) A 
tree. Canada to Carolina, in swamps; and found 
also from Hudson’s Bay to the northward of the 
Great Slave Lake, as far as lat. 64°. Height 20 ft. 
to 30ft. Introduced in 1812. Flowers brown ; 
April. Seed ripe in May. Decaying leaves dark : 
brown or black. 1495. P. (t) txépidae 
