POPLAR TREE. 



343 



Some have conferred this honour upon the larch ; but 

 if there be a doubt, it lies between the Poplar and the 

 alder. 



Sannazaro tells us this illustrious origin belongs to the 

 Poplar : our countryman Cowley attributes it to the 

 alder : 



" The Phaetonian alder next took place^ 

 Still sensible of the burnt youth's disgrace ; 

 She loves the purling streams^ and often laves 

 Beneath the floods, and wantons with the waves." 



Book V. 



Rapin is for the Poplar : 



" Nor must the Heliad's fate in silence pass. 

 Whose sorrow first produced the poplar race j 

 Their tears, while at a brother's grave they mourn. 

 To golden drops of fragrant amber turn." 



Book ii. 



Still more to add confusion to sylvan genealogy, Virgil, 

 who (his birth being the most ancient) was most likely to 

 know the truth of the affair, takes both sides of the 

 question : in the sixth Eclogue, he says — 



" Turn Phaethontiadas musco circumdat araarae 

 Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos." 



Rendered by Dryden — 



" The sisters mourning for their brother's loss ; 

 Their bodies hid in barks, and furred with moss^ 

 How each a rising alder now appears. 

 And o'er the Po distils her gummy tears." 



In the tenth Eneid— 



