56 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



a line which is, as it would seem, erroneously 

 attributed to the tree, but which seems better to 

 apply to the compactness and smoothness of the 

 texture of the cloth, from which oil glided off. 



In another passage , Homer couples with aiyeipo? 

 the epithet vdoTpcxfrrj?. 



The tallness of the tree, and its situation in 

 watery places, would seem to shew that the 

 Black Poplar was the one intended, especially as 

 the Aspen is not a common tree in Greece. 



But 'A^pai?, the lofty tree alluded to in the 

 Iliad p , seems to have been the White Poplar, cor- 

 responding to the AevKrj of Theophrastus and Dios- 

 corides, sacred to Hercules 



" Populus Alcidae gratissima." 



Pliny notices three species of Poplar, the White, 

 the Black, and the Lybian. 



He describes the White, as having a leaf, white 

 on the lower side, green on the upper. The leaves 

 both in this and in the Black species are rounded 

 when young, and partially developed, which is 

 the case especially with those of our White Poplar, 

 which in their early stage are palmated, but throw 

 off angular projections afterwards. 



The White, he says, has a white down upon its 

 leaves, resembling locks of wool, in which statement 

 he is correct, only that the cottony matter proceeds, 

 not as he represents it from the leaves, but from 

 the seeds, which are invested in a woolly covering. 



o Lib. xvii. P Lib. xiii. c. 389, and lib. xvi. c. 442. 



