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216 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. thirty pounds being laid out in these plants, would render at least ten 

 thousand pounds in eighteen years ; every tree affording thirty plants, 

 and every of them thirty more, after each seven years improving twelve- 

 pence in growth, till they arrive to their acme. 



7. The Black Poplar grows rarely with us ; it is a stronger and taller 

 tree than the AVhite, the leaves more dark, and not so ample. Divers 

 stately ones of these, I remember about the banks of the Po in Italy ; 

 which flourishing near the old Eridanus, (so celebrated by the Poets,) in 

 which the temerarious Phaeton is said to have been precipitated, doubtless 

 gave argument to that fiction of the metamorphosis of his sad sisters, and 

 the amber of their precious tears ^. It was whilst I was passing down 

 that river towards Ferrara, that I diverted myself with this story of the 



^ It does not appear from Ovid that the sisters of Phaeton were changed into Poplars. 

 The supposition probably arose from observing the banks of the Eridanus, or Po, covered 

 with these trees. Others again say, that they were changed into Larches, and this sup- 

 position seems as probable as the other ; for Vitruvius remarks, " Larix vero, non est 

 " notus nisi his municipibus, qui circa ripam fluminis Padi et litora maris Adriatici." In a 

 medal of Publius Accoleius Lariscolus, the three Sisters (Heliades) are represented as 

 transformed into Larches ; and Montfaucon quotes Palladius as saying, " Resina ilia liquida 

 " est lacrymse similis ; non recipit flammam, quasi odio persequatur, ob corabustum 

 " Phaethontem." This sentence, however, I do not find in Palladius. He only says, speaking 

 of Larches, " Neque enim flammam recipiunt, aut carbones creare possunt." Lib. xii. tit. xv. 

 Ovid thus describes the tears of the sorrowful Sisters : 



Inde fluunt lacryms : stillataque sole rigescunt 

 De ramis electra novis : quae lucidus amnis 



Excipit, el nuribus miltit gestanda Latinis. met. lib. ii. 



Virgil in one place says, that the Sisters were changed into Alders ; and in another, 

 that they were transformed into Poplars ; so that it is probable the Poets chose such 

 aquatics as best suited their purpose : 



Turn Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amarae 



Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit ahios. ecl. vi. 1.62. 



Populeas inter frondes umbramque Sororum 



Bum canit ■ .sneid x. 1.190. 



Our countryman Cowley, in his elegant Latin poem upon Plants, makes choice of the 

 Alder: 



Ambusti memor, ac casu perterrita Fratris, 



Malta gaudet aqua, et vivit secura sub undis. lib. vi. 



