vivid red of commencing winter. 
272 ASPECT. 
achieved, the bed should be cleared of its forcing 
appliances, and restored to its former condition. 
—Loudon’s Hortus Britannicus—Mawe's Garden- 
er’s Calendar.—Paper by Mr. Towers in Quarterly 
Journal of Agricultwre—Loudon’s Encyclopedia 
of Plants —Transactions of the London Horticul- 
tural Society—Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary.— 
Loudon’s Gardener's Magazine.—The Magazine of 
Domestic Economy. 
ASPARAGUS BEETLE. See Criocerris. 
ASPARTATES. See Asparacine. 
ASPECT. Asynonyme in gardeners’ language 
for exposure. See article Exposure. 
ASPEN or Rarrier,—botanically Populus tre- 
| mula, A species of amentaceous tree, of the poplar 
genus. It grows wild in the moist woods of Eng- 
land and Lowland Scotland, and on the borders 
| of lakes and rivers in the Scottish Highlands, Its 
| form pleases the eye; its stem is tapering and 
symmetrical; its young shoots are of a dark-brown 
colour; its leaves are roundish, angularly in- 
dented, smooth on both sides, green above and 
whitish below, and stand upon long slender foot- 
stalks; and its catkins appear in March and 
April, and resemble those of the abele. It often 
| attains a large size, but usually has a height of 
about 50 feet. Both of its popular names, and 
also its specific botanic name, allude to the well 
known property of its leaves of being freely sha- 
ken, and of occasioning a rustling sound, by the 
slightest current of air. Linnzeus and Dr. Stoke 
| ascribe this property to the peculiar structure of 
| the compressed petiole or leafstalk ; for the planes 
| of it are at right angles to those of the body of 
the leaf, which is itself furnished with two glands, 
running the one into the other. Yet the flattened 
| petiole is common to all the poplars ; and the mo- 
_ bility and rustling of the leaves of trees, in gen- 
_ eral, are in the proportion of the length and 
slenderness of the petioles. A superstitious 
| opinion is said to prevail in some parts of the 
Scottish Highlands, that the aspen furnished the 
timber of our Redeemer’s cross, and, in conse- 
| quence of this, acquired its excessive sensibility 
to the action of the wind. The tremulousness of 
the leaves of the aspen, combined with the dif- 
ference of the colour of their two surfaces, gives 
the tree a very changeful and somewhat interest- 
ing appearance, and entitles it to a place among 
ornamental wood which could not be obtained 
for it by its form and habits. Its foliage is in- 
teresting in all its stages, from the light green of 
summer, to the bright yellow of autumn and the 
But the tree is 
mischievous from its radical habits, and inappre- 
ciable in its peculiar beauties, when it stands in 
the interior of a wood or among a crowd of trees; 
and it probably produces its finest effect, when 
growing on the margin of a plantation of firs. 
| Its roots have the same spreading, decurrent, ex- 
| hausting habits as those of some other species of 
poplar ; and they send up many shoots or suckers 
at a distance from the stem, and monopolize all 
ASPHODEL. 
the vegetable nourishment of a comparatively 
large circumference of soil. The bark is a favour- 
ite food of beavers. The timber is very light, 
white, smooth, soft, and durable in the air; and 
may be used for the same purposes as the timber 
of theabele. See Asete. Red glandular-looking 
substances about the size of pease may sometimes 
be observed on the leaves and petioles, and are 
the nests of a kind of long-legged fly which ento- 
mologists call Zipula juniperina. The aspen is 
very easily propagated from suckers, and will grow 
and flourish in almost any kind of soil except 
clay.— Miller’s Dictionary, V. Poputus.—Marshall 
on Planting, V. Poruuus.—Sir John Sinclair's 
General Report of Scotland. — Nicol’s Planter’s 
Calendar. 
ASPERUGO. A curious, deciduous, procum- 
bent, annual weed, of the borage family. It grows 
to the height of 3 feet ; its stem is climbing and 
very rough; and its flowers are small, blue, and 
axillary, and appear in April and May. It grows 
wild, not only in Britain, but over all Europe, 
from Lapland to the Mediterranean. Only one 
species of it, Asperugo procumbens, is known; and 
this is sometimes popularly called German mad- 
wort, 
ASPERULA. See Wooprorr. 
ASPHALT, A native resinous substance found | 
in some quantity on the shores of the Dead sea, | 
on the island of Trinidad, &c., and supposed to 
be raised by springs from decomposing coal-for- | 
mations. It is black, shining, fuses at about 
212°, burns readily with a white flame and much 
smoke, leaving little ashes; by dry distillation it. 
yields empyreumatic oil, a little ammoniacal 
water, and combustible gases, and leaves 4 car- 
bon, containing in its ashes silica, alumina, oxide 
of iron, &c. It is insoluble in water; alcohol ex- 
tracts 5 per cent. of a yellow resin; ether extracts 
from the residue 70 per cent. more of a black or 
brownish black resin; the portion insoluble in 
alcohol and ether is readily soluble in oil of tur-_ 
pentine and naphtha, with difficulty in lavender- 
oil; this last, called by Boussingault asphalien, is 
black, shining, and softens at 572°. Sulphuric 
and nitric acids convert a part of asphalt into 
artificial tannin ; potash dissolves a large portion 
of asphalt with a black colour. The numerous 
cements in use at the present day under the name 
of asphalt are very different in their composition. 
Seyssel-asphalt is a combination of asphalt, and 
other bituminous substances, with carbonate of 
lime, in the proportion of about 83 of the former 
to 17 of the latter. See Brrumen and PETROLEUM. | 
ASPHODEL,—botanically Asphodelus, A genus 
of ornamental herbaceous plants, forming the 
type of the extensive natural endogenous order. 
Thirteen species have been de-. 
Asphodeleee. 
scribed by botanists, and introduced to Great 
Britain. The yellow species, Asphodelus luteus, 
is an old and well known inhabitant of our gar- 
dens; it was introduced from Sicily in 1596; it 
is a hardy, perennial, evergreen herb; and it 
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