_——————— 
2 ABDOMEN. 
by act of parliament, 1592, c.121, excepting such 
as had been made to persons who had been cre- 
ated lords-of-parliament subsequent to the act of 
annexation. On the restitution of bishops, in 
1606, the act of annexation was repealed, in so 
far as concerned their benefices. Presbytery was 
| re-established in 1638, but the bishops were again 
| restored in 1662, and held their benefices until 
the final abolition of Episcopacy in 1689, when 
they again fell to the crown. But they were 
| then acquired by his majesty, jure corone, and 
no new annexation took place. The crown havy- 
ing, thus, the power. to deal with these estates 
at its pleasure, made various grants out of them, 
to hospitals, universities, and for other public 
and pious purposes. 
The farmer feels no interest in the tithe-free 
condition of abbey-lands, under the peculiar law 
of Scotland; and he has lost most of his interest 
in it, under the recently altered law of Ireland; 
yet he may almost everywhere see, in the abbey- 
lands themselves, in their architectural monu- 
ments, or in their historical associations, some 
| features which shall give them a distinctive char- 
acter in his thoughts. Not a few of them were 
large benefactors to various useful arts; and 
especially to the arts of gardening and farming. 
— Blackstone's Commentaries, Book ii. c. 3.—Letters 
relating to the Suppression of Monasteries. Pub- 
lished by the Camden Society, 1843.—Third Report 
of the Commissioners of Religious Instruction, Scot- 
land, 1837. 
ABDOMEN. The belly of an animal, in which 
are contained the stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, 
pancreas, and kidneys. It is lined by a strong 
membrane called the peritoneum. But by the 
abdomen of a quadruped is often meant only 
the lower part of the belly; and by the abdomen 
of an insect is meant both back and belly, or all 
the part of the body behind the thorax or corse- 
let, “ usually consisting,” says Burmeister, “of 
several consecutive horny rings ‘or segments, in 
some cases following upon, in others retractile 
within each other.” 
ABELE, Arsrrn, or Waite Poprar—botani- 
cally, Populus alba. A well known, deciduous, 
aquatic tree, of the amentaceous tribe. It is 
common in Great Britain, and in most other 
countries of Hurope. It grows freely and rapidly, 
becomes tall and spreading, and is one of the 
largest of the aquatic trees; yet it seldom attains 
a height of more than from 40 to 50 feet. It 
has often been confounded with the grey poplar, 
or Populus canescens, and it is occasionally worked 
by climate and culture into a close similarity to 
that tree; yet it constitutes a perfectly distinct 
and easily recognizable species. Its outline is 
somewhat deficient in curvature and symmetry ; 
its stem is covered with a grey bark, and sends 
off numerous branches, which become compara- 
tively long and straggling ; its younger branches 
have a purple bark, coated with a white down; 
and its leaves are large,—three, four, or five 
ABELE.. 
lobed,—indented on the edge,—of a very dark 
colour above, but white and downy or rather | 
quite hoary below,—and standing on footstalks 
of about an inch in length. Old Parkinson’s 
description of the leaves is very accurate. He 
describes them as “cut into severall divisions, 
almost like unto a vine leaf, but not of so deep a 
green on the upper side, and hoary white under- 
neath, of a reasonable good sent, the whole forme 
representing the leafe of colt’s foot.” A botanist 
readily distinguishes the white from the grey pop- 
lar, by the shape of its catkins and the number of 
its pistils; and a general observer, by the obvious 
contrast of stems, branches, leaves, and outline,— 
the stem of the grey poplar being unincumbered 
and silvery, the branches compact, the leaves 
small and waved, and the outline comparatively 
regular and massive. Yet the abele has been 
much modified by local and peculiar influences ; 
it has sported itself into a considerable number 
of sub-species or varieties; and, in consequence, 
it is far from being always seen of the same pre- 
cise form, or with the same minor characteris- 
tics. Harly in April appear its male flowers or 
catkins, — cylindrical, scaly, and about three 
inches in length; about a week later, appear the 
female flowers; soon after, the male flowers fall ; 
and in five or six weeks after, the seeds are rip- 
ened, dropped, and wafted to a distance. 
The abele, though systematically ranked as an 
aquatic, and though decidedly preferring a wet 
situation, will both strike root and grow in al- 
most any soil. It is propagated readily by cut. 
tings or layers, and very freely by suckers. Cut- 
tings ought to be two or three feet in length; 
and, if planted in February, to the depth of about 
18 inches, in moist or marshy soil, they will 
speedily form roots, and will, in the course of 
a few years, acquire a very considerable size. 
Suckers rise profusely from the decurrent, wide- 
spread roots of most healthy trees; and a single 
stem of white poplar has been known to form by 
its suckers, in twenty years, a circular clump of 
50 feet diameter. The suckers ought to be trans- 
planted in October into a small nursery-bed, and 
removed in the course of two or three years to 
the situations in which they are designed to re- 
main. But, in fact, the abele, in common with 
most of the poplars and the willows, may be 
treated almost at random; for so tenacious is it 
of life, and so determined to multiply itself and 
grow, that sticks of it, pushed into the ground, 
will strike root, and young plants, in any situa- 
tion, will soar aloft in derision of maltreatment. 
The abele might advantageously cover many 
a small boggy tract which is otherwise useless; 
it might, in ome rare cases, be raised upon the 
edge of a spot of spouty ground, to conceal a 
deformity in a landscape; it might even be per- 
mitted to figure as one of the trees of a wet part 
of a mixed plantation ; and it is eminently fitted 
for forming speedy shelter, or a shaded walk, in 
a bare, bleak, newly reclaimed expanse of coun- 
