342 



SYLA^xVN SKETCHES. 



" The poplar to Alcides consecrate." 



He crowned his head with it from the banks of Acheron, 

 when he returned from the infernal regions. His crown 

 was of the White Poplar : 



" The poplar that with silver lines his leaf." 



In Virgil's ninth Eclogue, the shepherd inviting Ga- 

 latea, mentions, among other recommendations, that the 

 White Poplar grows near his dwelling : 



hie Candida populus antro 



Imminet^ et lentce texunt umbracula vites." 



^' Near to my grot the silver poplar grows^ 

 Its shade inwoven with the leafy vine.'' 



When any ceremonies or sacrifices vv ere performed to 

 Hercules, his worshippers wreathed their heads with the 

 leaves and young shoots of this Poplai' : 



Turn Salii ad cantus^ incensa altaria circuni, 

 Populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis 



-^neid, viii. 



Translated by Dryden — 



" The Salii sing^ and cense his altars round 



With Sabine smoke, their heads with poplar bound." 



The poets tell us that the Heliades, on account of their 

 great affliction at the death of their brother Phaeton, were 

 changed into Poplars, their tears being converted into 

 amber. They do not, indeed, altogether agree upon this 

 subject : Ovid only says they were changed to trees ; and 

 this having happened on the banks of the Po, he has been 

 supposed to mean poplars, with which those banks are 

 covered. 



