Black Poplar. 
295 
to find Virgil, a very ancient authority, in one place calling 
these noted trees poplars, and in another alders ! 
Rapin adheres to the popular theory, and says: 
“Nor must the Heliads’ fate in silence pass, 
Whose sorrow first produced the poplar race; 
Their tears, while at a brother’s grave they mourn. 
To golden drops of fragrant amber turn.” 
Cowley fights for the minority thus : 
“The Phsetonian alder next took place, 
Still sensible of the burnt youth’s disgrace; 
She loves the purling streams, and often laves 
Beneath the floods, and wantons with the waves.” 
Whilst Spenser is as discreet as Ovid, and omits the tree’s 
name: 
“ 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.” 
Miss Kent—no mean authority—after well weighing the 
evidence, thus gives judgment: “ It is pretty generally under¬ 
stood, 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.” 
In moist situations this tree will grow to a great height: it 
has a long branchless trunk, adorned with a handsome sym¬ 
metrical head ; the bark is ashen-hued, the foliage of a glitter¬ 
ing brightness; and it must be confessed that a somewhat 
brilliant symbol for affliction is 
“The poplar trembling o’er the silver floocL” 
