135. — Johnst. FI. of Berw. v . i. p. 220. — Winch’s FI. of Northumber. and Durh. 
p. 64.— Walker’s FI. of Oxf. p. 297.— Bab. FI. Bath, p. 46.— Irv. Lond. FI. p. 115. 
— Cow. FI. Guide, p. 42.— Leight. FI. of Shropsh. p. 495.— Gulliv. PI. of Banbury, 
p. 20.— Beesley’s Hist, of Banbury, p. 588.— Mack. Catal. PI. of Irel. p. 86. ; FI. 
Hibern. p. 254. 
Localities, — In moist woods, and about the banks of rivers. 
Tree. — Flowers in March. 
A large tree , with an ample head, composed of numerous branches 
and terminal shoots. Wood tough, and close grained. Bark thick, 
blackish, somewhat spongy, becoming rough and deeply furrowed 
with age. Branches smooth ; rarely hairy when young. Leaves 
on yellowish, somewhat compressed petioles ; deltoid, or unequally 
quadrangular, pointed, serrated, the base more entire, very smooth, 
deep green, the under side palest. Catkins all loose and drooping, 
3 or 4 inches long, appearing before the leaves, in March and April ; 
those of the sterile trees are of a dark red, and, being produced in 
abundance, have a very striking effect. Stamens 8, scarcely more 
with us, though Linnaeus and Leers describe 16. Germen in the 
fertile flower egg-shaped, but slender, closely sheathed at the base 
only with the regular cup-like corolla. Stigmas 4, awl-shaped, 
simple, moderately spreading, reddish. Capsule roundish, in- 
closing the seeds, which are enveloped in a beautiful white cotton, 
by which, when the capsule opens, they are disseminated to a great 
distance by the winds. 
This tree is a native of Europe, from Sweden to Italy. It is found also in the 
north of Africa. In a natural state, the leaves and young shoots are eaten by 
cattle, and the wood by beavers. The bark, in Russia, is used for preparing 
morocco leather; and, when it is pulverized it is eaten by sheep. In Britain, it 
is used, like that of the oak, for tanning leather. The bark of the old trunk, being 
very thick, light, and corky, is employed by fishermen to support their nets, and, 
it is said, is used as coiks for bottles. In Kamschatka, and in Norway, the poor 
inhabitants are sometimes reduced to the necessity of drying the inner hark, and 
grinding it, in order to mix it with their oatmeal. The wood is light, soft, and 
not apt to splinter, and is used by the turner, and in particular by the bellows- 
maker, it being very close and light. It is incomparable, according to Evelyn, 
for all sorts of white wooden vessels, as trays, bowls, and other turner’s ware. It 
is also used for making clogs, and for the soles, as well as heels, of shoes. Like 
all the other kinds of Poplar, the wood is bad for fuel, as it lather roasts away 
than burns, giving a great deal of smoke, but no flame. On this account it is 
considered as excellent for building of cottages, stables. Sec. ; and also for floor- 
ing, as the boards are so slow in taking fire, that the flames are said to have been 
stopped at that part of a building on fire, where this timber had been used. The 
buds, macerated in boiling water, and afterwards bruised in a mortar and pressed, 
yield a fat substance, which burns like wax, and exhales a fine odour. Brooms 
are made of the twigs, and in some places sheep are fed upon the dried leaves in 
winter. From the cottony down, which envelopes the seeds, paper and cloth 
have been manufactured. 
The red substances, like berries, upon the leaves and leaf-stalks, as large as a 
cherry, bulging on one side, and gaping on the other, are occasioned by an in- 
sect, the Apis Populi. — Erysiphe adunca ; Uredo Populi ; and Erineum 
Populinum ; three minute parasitic fungi, are common on the living leaves of 
this species of Poplar about Oxford in the summer : and, later in the season, on 
the dry fallen leaves, may be found Sphceria ceuthocarpa, of Frie’s, Xyloma 
populinum, of Persoon, in abundance. 
