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generally in France, and occasionally in Italy, is often a very beautiful andnatural accompaniment to buildings. “ We have observed,” he says, “ a verywhimsical effect produced by the long rows of these poplars in France, whenseen crowning a distant elevation, where they have had to us all the appear-ance of an army drawn up; and we remarked that this whimsical deceptionvery frequently occurred.” (Lauder’s Gilpin, v ol. i.p. 116.) Mr. Sang considersthe Lombardy poplar as a “very ugly tree;” a circumstance which we arerather surprised at in so enlightened an observer. The prevalence of thesepoplars in the vicinity of London, and other places in England, he says, hefound tiresome in the extreme. Cobbett asserts the poplars to be a “ veryworthless family of trees;” and he adds, “ That well-known, great, strong, uglything, called the Lombardy poplar, is very apt to furnish its neighbours with asurplus population of caterpillars, and other abominable insects.” ( Woodlands.)

Poetical and legendary Allusions. Some authors make Lombardy poplarsthe trees into which the sisters of Phaethon were changed. The unhappyvirgins, say they, in their despair, clasped their hands above their heads, tillthey became fixed, and with the long hair which hung down and covered themlike a veil, changed into leaves and branches, from which their tears streamincessantly'. Notwithstanding the poetry of this idea, the Lombardy poplarcould not be the tree alluded to by Ovid ; since it has certainly been eitheroriginated in, or introduced into, Italy at a comparatively modern period, andconsequently was not known to the ancients. The spiral form of this poplar,and the manner in which it waves in one mass, have been noticed by severalof our modern poets. Leigh Hunt speaks of

-“ The poplar’s shoot,

Which, like a feather, waves from head to foot

and Barry Cornwall says, -

‘ The poplar there

Shoots up its spire, and shakes its leaves i’ the sunFantastical.”

The Isle of Poplars, in the Marquis de Girardin’s gardens at Ermenonville,is celebrated for having been the place chosen by Rousseau for his owngrave. The island is about 50 ft. long, and 30 ft. broad, and is situatedat one end of a large lake. The only trees planted on the island are Lombardypoplars. A plan of the island may be seen in the Encyclopedia of Gardening, cd.1835, p. 86.; and a view of the island and the tomb forms the frontispieceto Girardin’s Essay on Landscape, &c.

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