THE WHITE POPLAR, or ABELE TREE. 



PoPULUS ALBA. 



THE GREY POPLAR. 



PoPULUS CANESCENS. 



There appears to be some doubt among au- 

 thors whether both these trees ought to be con- 

 sidered as natives of Britain, or whether the lat- 

 ter only is indigenous, Evelyn describes the 

 White Poplar, and mentions also a finer sort, 

 ^Svhich the Dutch call Abele,* and we have of 

 late much of it transported out of Holland." 

 About the middle of the sixteenth century, as 

 many as 10,000 trees of the same kind are said 

 by HartlifF to have been imported from Flanders, 

 and transplanted into many countries. The fact 

 is, the trees are so much alike in character, that 

 we may safely conclude that the tree which we 

 call the Grey Poplar was knomi to the earlier 

 writers as a native tree by the name White 

 Poplar, which title was subsequently transferred, 

 for the sake of distinction, to the Abele ; the 

 British tree receiraig the epithet of " grey" for 

 the same reason. The mere casual observer would 

 scarcely observe the difference between the two ; 

 botanists, indeed, are not agreed whether they are 



* The English name of Abele is deriyed from the Dutch name of 

 the tree, Abeel ; and this name is supposed hj some to be taken 

 from that of the city of Arbela, in the plains of Nineveh, near 

 which, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, great numbers of 

 these trees grow. — Loudon. 



