THE BLACK POPLAR. 



363 



interval, the light downy seeds of the black Pop- 

 lars and Willows of the neighbouring woods had 

 sprung up from the ground, and from the crevices 

 of the walls, and attained even a timber size. 

 The same author records a similar instance in 

 Moscow, where, in 1814, he saw springing up 

 everywhere, from the ashes of those ruined houses 

 which had not been rebuilt, plants of the native 

 Black Poplar.* Thus, had Moscow been left to 

 itself, that immense city would have become by 

 this time a natural forest. 



The timber arrives at perfection in about fifty 

 or sixty years, soon after which it begins to 

 decay. In the arts it is of no great value ; and 

 owing to its lightness and softness, is not much 

 used, except for packing-cases and soles of shoes, 

 &c. In Russia the bark is used in the prepara- 

 tion of morocco leather, and in England for tan- 

 ning leather. Loudon states that the bark of the 

 old trunk is employed by fishermen for buoying 

 up their nets, and mentions other uses to which 

 various parts of the tree may be appKed, but 

 none of these are important. 



There are many trees of this species existing 

 in Great Britain which exceed seventy feet in 

 height : one at Bury St. Edmund's is said by 

 Strutt (from whose Sylva the engraving at the 

 head of this chapter is taken) to be ninety feet 

 high and fifteen feet in circumference at one 

 yard from the ground. The trunk rises forty-five 

 feet before it divides, and then it throw^s out a 

 profusion of branches. But the largest on re- 

 cord is one, mentioned in Feldborg's Denmark, 



* Loudon states this to be the Aspen. 



