Part 31

Again Spenser uses the same simile:—

“His hand did quake And tremble like a leaf of aspen green.”

And Sir Walter Scott uses it in the same way to picture quick changes of facial expression:—

“With every change his features played, As aspens show the light and shade.”

Gerard, in a way scarcely flattering to the sex, compares the leaves to women’s tongues, “which seldom cease wagging;” but Sir Walter Scott restores the balance in the lines:—

“O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou.”

Populus tremuloides

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The wood is close-grained, soft, and not strong, but it is made into pulp and used in the manufacture of paper. The bark is brittle, with a taste like quinine, but the inner bark is sweet, and in the spring it is used as food by the Indians.

The generic name, Populus, is supposed to have come from the Latin arbor populi (the tree of the people), because rows of this tree were always planted in public places about Rome. The specific name, tremuloides, refers to the leaves which tremble continually on account of their long, flattened, pliable leafstalks. The aspen grows wild throughout the Northern United States and in the mountains of Lower California and Mexico.

Populus grandidentata]

A large tree, 60 to 80 feet high, with smooth greenish gray bark. The buds are conical with somewhat downy scales and spread at right angles from the stem. Slender twigs and alternate leaf-scars.

This tree is quite distinct from the American aspen, although it is often confounded with it. It is found much less frequently than the American aspen.

The wood is close-grained, soft, and light, and is used for making wood pulp and wooden ware. In old times when it was the fashion for women to wear high-heeled shoes this wood was used in making heels, as it was light and best adapted to the purpose.

The specific name, grandidentata (large toothed), refers to the serrations of the leaf, which are much coarser than those of the American aspen.

Populus balsamifera]

A tall tree, 40 to 70 feet high. The bark ts smooth and greenish gray, often roughly ridged at the base of the trunk. Large buds with overlapping scales covered with a sticky, yellow, glutinous substance. Conspicuous alternate leaf-scars.

In the early spring, when the sun has melted the gummy resin which covers the buds of the balm of Gilead, one can tell the tree blind-folded by its sweet, pungent perfume, and even in winter the buds have this same strong, medicinal, aromatic odor which serves as a means of recognizing the tree.

Pallas says that when grouse and other birds of that family feed on the buds of the balm of Gilead during the winter, their flesh becomes imbued with the balsam flavor, which he seems to think adds to the relish of the meat as food.

This tree grows very fast on almost any kind of soil, and its roots extend to a great distance. Emerson found a balm of Gilead the roots of which had passed under a house forty feet wide and thrown up suckers on the other side.

The wood, like that of other poplars, is soft and light and is used in making paper pulp, pails, and boxes.

The specific name refers to the balsam on the buds. The balm of Gilead is found in the Western and Eastern States.

Populus deltoides]

A large tree, 80 to 100 feet high. The bark is dark gray and more broken in fissures than that of other poplars. The buds are glossy and resinous, but have less balsam than those of the other species. Alternate leaf-scars. Conspicuous five-angled pith in the small stems.

The cottonwood is larger than the other poplars, and in the Mississippi Valley it sometimes grows to be one hundred and fifty feet high. The climate of London must be particularly congenial to this tree, for Emerson alludes to trees there which grew thirty and forty feet in only seven years. In England it is called the black Italian poplar. The name necklace poplar comes from the resemblance of the fruit of the catkins to the beads of a necklace.

The wood is light and soft, and is used for pulp, for making packing cases, and for fuel.

The specific name, deltoides, comes from the Greek, and alludes to the deltoid or triangular shape of the leaves. The cottonwood grows wild in Western New England, south to Florida and westward.

Beside these four poplars, the swamp cottonwood (Populus heterophylla) is found growing wild at one place in Connecticut, and the Lombardy and white poplars are both planted commonly from Europe.