WILLOW FAMILY 
The foliage effect of a tree is often compounded of the dif- 
ferent colors shown by the two sides of its leaves, of which 
the White Poplar gives a marked example ; or by new leaves 
coming out and showing themselves upon the dark back- 
ground of older leaves as is the case with the locusts and 
the conifers. ‘This mingling of green and white makes the 
White Poplar a most effective ornameutal tree, but it is 
never safe to allow it a free hand, for the root is creeping 
and produces suckers indefinitely, so that in a brief period 
a parent tree will be surrounded by a numerous and well- 
grown family that will soon convert the place into a 
thicket. 
The White Poplar ts native of both Europe and Asia and 
was brought to this country very early. In favorable situa- 
tions it rises to the height of eighty or one hundred feet, with 
a sturdy trunk and spreading head. ‘The bark of the lower 
part of the trunk is dark and furrowed and that of the upper 
part and larger branches is greenish gray with dark markings 
and blotches. The young shoots are covered with a white 
down and continue to come out far into midsummer, thus in- 
creasing the white appearance of the tree. The leaves are 
either lobed or coarsely and sparingly toothed, very dark 
green and smooth above, covered with a thick snowy down 
beneath, and tremulous like all their kind. With the elm and 
the early maples it responds to the first warm days of spring 
and when in full bloom may be said fairly to drip catkins, so 
covered is every branch with the pendulous aments, three 
inches long and as large as one’s finger. 
According to ancient mythology the White Poplar was 
consecrated to Hercules because he destroyed Cacus in a 
cavern adjoining Mt. Aventinus, which was covered with 
these trees ; and in the moment of his triumph he bound his 
brows with a branch of White Poplar as a token of his vic- 
tory. Persons offering sacrifices to Hercules were always 
crowned with branches of this tree ; and all who had glori- 
ously conquered their enemies in battle wore garlands of it, 
in imitation of Hercules. Homer in the ‘ Iliad” compares 
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