Aspen. 
(LAMENTATION.) 
And full of emotion, its fault doth deplore, 
Sigh, shiver, and quiver, and droop evermore.” 
Eleanor Darby. 
T HE Trembling Poplar is now generally known as the 
Aspen. It is chiefly remarkable for the ceaseless tremu¬ 
lous motion of its leaves—a natural phenomenon, to account 
for which many very diverse explanations have been proffered. 
One authority attributes it to the plane of the long leaf-stalk 
being at right angles with that of the leaf, thus allowing a freer 
motion than they could have had if the planes had been 
parallel; another learned gentleman ascribes the trembling to 
the length and slenderness of the leaf-stalks; but that this is 
not a sufficient reason is proved by the fact that the leaves of 
other poplars have the same properties without partaking of a 
similar restlessness. Some malicious wretches have affirmed 
that the leaves of the aspen were made of women’s tongues, 
“which never cease wagging.” The Highlanders, however, 
set the question at rest by saying that the cross upon which 
Christ suffered crucifixion was made from the wood of this 
tree, and that therefore the tree can never rest. A quibbling 
objection has been raised against this theory, that the leaves 
can scarcely be conscience-stricken, as the cross could not have 
been made of them ; nevertheless, the querist admits that they 
may be struggling to escape from the wicked wood on which 
they grow. Miss Darby, in her “Lays of Love and Heroism,” 
has thus versified a German legend upon the subject: 
“ The Lord of Life walk’d in the forest one morn, 
When the song-wearied nightingale slept on the thorn; 
Not a breath the deep hush of the dawning hour broke, 
Yet every tree, e’en the firm knotted oak, 
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