THE POPLAR. 
57 
others ; the employment is not only conducive to health 
and peace of mind, but probably more good-will has 
arisen, and friendships been founded by the intercourse 
and communication connected with this pursuit than 
from any other whatsoever : the pleasures, the ecstasies 
of the horticulturist are harmless and pure ; a streak, 
a tint, a shade, becomes his triumph, which though 
often obtained by chance, are secured alone by morning 
care, by evening caution, and the vigilance of days : an 
employ which, in its various grades, excludes neither 
the opulent nor the indigent, and teeming with bound- 
less variety, affords an unceasing excitement to emula- 
tion without contempt or ill-will. 
The bouquet may be an exile now; but the revolutions 
of fashion will surely return this beautiful ornament to 
favor again. With us the nosegay yet retains its station 
as a decoration to our Sunday beaux ; but at our spring 
clubs and associations it becomes an essential, indis- 
pensable appointment ; a little of the spirit of rivalry 
seeming to animate our youths in the choice and mag- 
nitude of this adornment. The superb spike of a Bromp- 
ton, or a ten weeks’ stock, long cherished in some shel- 
tered corner for the occasion, surrounded by all the 
gaiety the garden can afford, till it presents a very bush 
of flowers, forms the appendage of their bosoms, and, 
with the gay knots in their hats, their best garments, 
and the sprightly hilarity of their looks, constitutes a 
pleasing village scene, aud gives an hour of unencum- 
bered felicity to common man and rural life, not yet 
disturbed by refinement and t^ste. 
“ Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand 
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?” 
And yet the shivering of the aspen, or poplar tree (popu- 
lus tremula), in the breeze will give us the sensation 
of coldness, and communicate an involuntary shudder- 
ing. The construction of the foliage of this tree is pe- 
culiarly adapted for motion : a broad leaf placed upon 
a long footstalk, so flexile, as scarcely to be able to sup- 
port the leaf in an upright posture : the upper part of 
this stalk, on which the play or action seems mainly to 
