O'! O,

l M'

A DISCOURSE

the heads must by no means be diminished, but the lower branches may,yet not too far up; the foot should also be cleansed every second year:This for the White. The Black Poplar is frequently pollared, when asbig as one’s arm, eight or nine feet from the ground, as they trim themin Italy for their Vines to serpent and twist on; and those they poll, orhead, every second year, sparing the middle, straight, and thrivingestshoot, and at the third year cut him also. There be yet that condemnthe pruning of this Poplar , as hindering its growth.

2. The shade of this tree is esteemed very wholesome in summer, butthey do not become walks or avenues, by reason of their suckers, and thatthey foul the ground at the fall of the.leaf. hut they should be plantedin barren woods, and to flank places at a distance, for their increase, andthe glittering brightnefs of their foliage: The leaves are good for cattle,which must be stripped from the cut boughs before they are fagotted.

kingdom of a sufficient age to enable us to fix the standard of its excellence. So far as we-yet know, it promises to answer the high character given of its quick growth.

All the foreign Poplars grow very freely in this country, and, like the others, are propa-gated by cuttings and layers.

The Poplar was sacred to Hercules, “ Populus Alcidae gratifsima;” and when any cere-monies were instituted in honour of that god, its tender branches and leaves were twined,round the heads of the votaries :

Turn Salii ad cantus, incensa altaria circum,

Populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis. jeneid, viii. ver. 285 .

It was customary with lovers to write verses upon the bark of different trees. Ovid , inthe epistle from Oenone to Paris, fixes upon the Poplar :

Populus est, memini, fluviali consita ripa,

Est in qua nostri litera scripta memor.

Popule, vive, precor, qus consita margine ripa;

Hoc in rugoso cortice carmen habes:

Cum Paris Oenone poterit spirare relicta,

Ad fontem Xanthi versa recurret aqua.

Homer beautifully compares the fall of Simoisius, by the hand of Ajax, to a Poplar justcut down;

So falls a Poplar , that in wat’ry groundRais’d high the head, with stately branches crown’d,

(Fell’d by some artist with his shining steel,

To shape the circle of the bending wheel)

Cut down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread,

"With all its beauteous honours on its head.

Pope.