344 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Namque femnt, luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati^ 

 Populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum 

 Dum canit, et raoestum Musa solatur amorem." 



" For Cycnus loved unhappy Phaeton^ 

 And sung his loss in poplar groves, alone. 

 Beneath the sister shades to soothe his grief." 



Dryden's Virgil. 



Spenser alludes to the circumstance, without naming 

 the tree : 



" And eke those trees in whose transformed hue. 

 The sun's sad daughters wailed the rash decay 

 Of Phaeton, whose limbs with lightning rent. 

 They gathering up, with sweet tears did lament." 



It is pretty generally understood, however, to be the 

 Poplar tree that is so nearly related to the sun ; and the 

 Black Poplar : and it is certain that there is no tree upon 

 which the sun shines more brightly. 



The Lombardy Poplar also has its own peculiar me- 

 rits, as well as the White and the Black : all the Poplars, 

 indeed, have an elegant effect when mingled with trees 

 of broader growth : 



" Gracing each other like the trees in spring, 

 The tufted by the tall." 



But that of Lombardy has this great and peculiar 

 beauty, that its fine spiral form, when agitated by the 

 wind, moves in one sweep from the top to the bottom, 

 forming a beautiful waving line, which Martyn aptly 

 compares to an ostrich feather waving on a lady's head. 

 All the branches, as he observes, coincide in the motion, 

 and the least breeze will stir it, when other trees are at 



