1668

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

MtfS

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was dry and dusty, while it was quite otherwise with the line of a few Lom-bardy poplars; for from them it rained so plentifully, and so fast, that anyone of them might have been used as an admirable shower-bath, and the con-stant stream of water supplied by the aggregate would (properly directed) havesufficed to turn an ordinary mill.” (Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 34.)

In British nurseries, hedges for shelter are frequently formed of the Lom-bardy poplar; in which case they are cut over at a certain height, and regularlycut in on each side, so as to form a verdant wall, 8 ft. or 10 ft. high, 18 in.wide at bottom, and 6 in. wide at top. It is an excellent tree for shelteringor shading either fields or gardens in a flat country ; but care must be takento plant it at a sufficient distance; and, where shelter is wanted without shade,not to introduce it on the south side of any garden or orchard, unless at adistance of at least twice its ordinary height.

The Lombardy poplar, when Gilpin wrote his Forest Scenery, which waspreviously to 1780, had been only seen by that agreeable writer as a youngtree. “ Within these few years,” he says, “ the Lombardy poplar, which gracesthe banks of the Po, has been much introduced in English plantations. Itseoms to like a British soil, and its youth is promising; but I have never seenit in full maturity. Its conic form, as a deciduous tree, is peculiar. Amongevergreens, we find the same character in the cypress; and both trees, in manysituations, have a good effect. The cypress, often, among the ruins of ancientRome, breaks the regularity of a wall or a pediment, by its conic form : andthe poplar on the banks of the Po, no doubt, has the same effect among itsdeciduous brethren, by forming the apex of a clump; though I have beentold that, in its age, it loses its shape, and spreads more into a head. Theoldest poplars of this kind I have seen are at Blenheim. They are not oldtrees, but are very tall, and, I believe, still preserve their spiry form. Onebeauty the Italian poplar possesses, which is almost peculiar in itself; andthat is the waving line it forms when agitated by the wind. Most trees, inthis circumstance, are partially agitated : one side is in rest, while the other isin motion. But the Italian poplar waves in one simple sweep from the topto the bottom, like an ostrich feather on a lady’s head. All the branchescoincide in the motion : but, in painting, I know not that I should representany kind of motion in a tree, except that of a violent storm. When the blastcontinues for some time, when the black heavens are in unison with it, andhelp to tell the story, an oak straining in the wind is an object of picturesquebeauty; but when the gentle breeze, pressing upon the quivering poplar,bends it only in easy motion, while a serene sky indicates the heavens to beat peace, there is nothing to act in concert with the motion of the tree: itseems to have taken its form from the influence of a sea air, or some othermalign impression; and, exhibiting an unnatural appearance, disgusts. Onething more I should mention with regard to the Italian poplar; which is, that,although it sometimes has a good effect when standing singly, it generally has abetter when two or three are planted in a clump.” (Forest Scenery, vol.i. p. 58.)

The Lombardy poplar, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes, though extremelyfatiguing to the eye when it lines the road for many miles, as it does very