244 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
The leaves are round in their outline, about two inches long 
and of equal breadth, somewhat heart-shaped at base, abruptly 
acuminate, with a wavy, toothed border, covered with soft silk 
when young, which remains only as a fringe on the edge at 
maturity; supported by a very slender footstalk about as long 
as the leaf, and compressed laterally from near the base. ‘They 
are thus agitated by the slightest breath of wind, with that 
quivering, restless motion, characteristic of all the poplars, but 
in none so striking as this. In this respect, it bears a near re- 
semblance to the European tree, after which it is named, and 
which has given occasion to so many poetical and satirical allu- 
sions; whose leaves Gerard compares to women’s tongues, 
“which seldom cease wagging;’’ and Homer, to give us an 
idea of the activity of Penelope’s maidens at the loom, says,— 
‘Their busy fingers move 
Like poplar leaves when zephyr fans the grove ,”’ 
and, best of all, Walter Scott, in his lines,— 
«Oh, woman! in our hours of ease 
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 
And variable as the shade 
By the light quivering aspen made, 
When pain or sickness rends the brow, 
A ministering angel thou.” 
The foliage appears lighter than that of most other trees, from 
continually displaying the under surface of the leaves. The 
stipules are small, lanceolate, silky, transient. On the sprouts 
which spring from the roots of this poplar, the leaves are often 
many times larger than those of the tree, and so differently 
shaped, as to lead one not familiar with them to think he has 
found a new species. I believe the same thing is true of several 
other species of poplar. 
The wood is soft, white, fine-grained, light, and very perish- 
able when exposed to the weather. It is deficient in strength, 
and is not much used, but might serve well for floors, as it has 
a good color, and is not liable to splinter when bruised. 
The bark is excessively bitter, with a taste precisely like 
quinine, to which it has an intimate resemblance in its properties. 
This tree is found in Canada, as far north as 64°, and thence 
