White Poplar. 
(COURAGE—TIME.) 
“ The poplar that with silver lines his leaf.” 
Cowper. 
HE White Poplar in classic story was consecrated to 
1 Hercules, the mythological representative of courage. 
The hero first became associated with the tree when he de¬ 
stroyed Cacus, in a cavern of Mount Aventine, which was co¬ 
vered with poplars : he bound a branch of one round his brow 
as a token of his victory. When the demigod returned from 
his journey into the infernal regions, he came crowned with a 
wreath of his favourite tree, torn from the banks of the river 
Acheron. 
“The poplar, to Alcides consecrate,” 
adds the fable, on this occasion first had its leaves changed to 
their present hue ; for it was the perspiration from the hero’s 
brow—so runs the story—that made the inside portion of the 
leaf white, whilst the smoke of the lower regions turned the 
upper surface of the leaf almost black. When any ceremonies 
or sacrifices were made to Hercules, his worshippers wreathed 
their heads with poplar-leaves, and all who had triumphed in 
battle wore garlands of it in commemoration of their great 
predecessor’s victory. 
Dryden, translating Virgil, says : 
“ The Salii sing, and cense his altars round 
With Sabine smoke, their heads with poplar bound.” 
The ancients also dedicated this tree to Time, because its 
leaves appear constantly in motion ; and being of a dead 
blackish green above, and white below, they deemed that they 
indicated the alternation of night and day. 
The straight trunk of this elegant tree often rises to a great 
height, and it is decked with a pale smooth bark that frequently 
offers a marked contrast to its dark, rough neighbours: 
