plantations; the more so, perhaps, because it is an exotic. At some distance, the downy under surfaces of the leaves, turned up by the wind, give it very much the aspect of a tree covered with white blossoms. This effect is the more striking, when it is situated in front of a group or mass of the darker foliage of other trees. It is valuable for retaining its leaves in full beauty to the latest possible period in the autumn, even when all the other deciduous trees are either brown, or have entirely lost their leafy honours. Its growth is extremely rapid, forming a fine rounded head of thirty feet in height, in six or eight years.

The Lombardy poplar is a beautiful tree, and in certain situations, produces a very elegant effect; but it has been planted so indiscriminately, in some parts of this country, in close monotonous lines before the very doors of our houses, and in many places in straight rows along the highways for miles together, to the neglect of our fine native trees, that it has been tiresome and disgusting. This tree may, however, be employed with singular advantage in giving life, spirit, and variety to a scene composed entirely of round-headed trees, as the oak, ash, etc.,—when a tall poplar, emerging, here and there from the back or centre of the group, often imparts an air of elegance and animation to the whole. It may, also, from its marked and striking contrast to other trees, be employed to fix or direct the attention to some particular point in the landscape. When large poplars of this kind are growing near a house of but moderate dimensions, they have a very bad effect, by completely overpowering the building, without imparting any of that grandeur of character conferred by an old oak, or other spreading tree. It should be introduced but sparingly in landscape composition, as the moment it is made common in any scene, it gives an

air of sameness and formality, and all the spirited effect is lost which its sparing introduction among other trees produces. The Lombardy poplar is so well adapted to confined situations, as its branches require less lateral room than those of almost any other large deciduous tree.

It is an objection to some of the poplars, that in any cultivated soil they produce an abundance of suckers. For this reason, they should be planted only in grass ground, or in situations where the soil will not be disturbed, or where the suckers will not be injurious. Indeed, we conceive them to be chiefly worthy of introduction in grounds of large extent, to give variety to plantations of other and more valuable trees. They grow well in almost every soil, moist or dry, and some species prefer quite wet and springy places.

The chief American poplars are the Tacamahaca or Balsam poplar, (Populus balsamifera,) chiefly found in Northern America; a large tree, 80 feet high, with fragrant gummy buds, and lanceolate-oval leaves; the Balm of Gilead poplar, (P. candicans) resembling the foregoing in its buds, but with very large, broad heart-shaped foliage. From these a gum is sometimes collected, and used medicinally for the cure of scurvy. The American aspen, (P. tremuloides,) about 30 feet high, a common tree with very tremulous leaves and greenish bark; the large American aspen, (P. grandidentata,) 40 feet high, with large leaves bordered with coarse teeth or denticulations; the Cotton tree, (P. argentea, 60 or 70 feet, with leaves downy in a young state; the American Black poplar, of smaller size, having the young shoots covered with short hair; the Cottonwood, (P. Canadensis,) found chiefly in the western

part of this state, a fine tree, with smooth, unequally-toothed wide cordate leaves; and the Carolina poplar, (P. angulata,) an enormous tree, of the swamps of the south and west, considerably resembling the Cotton tree, but without the resinous buds of that species.

Among the European kinds, the most ornamental, as we have already remarked, is the Silver aspen, White poplar, or Abele tree, (P. alba,) which grows to a great size on a deep loamy soil, in a very short time. The leaves are divided into lobes, and toothed on the margin, smooth and very deep green above, and densely covered with a soft, close, white down beneath. There are some varieties of this species known abroad, with leaves more or less downy, etc. Sir J. E. Smith remarks in his English Flora, that the wood though but little used, is much firmer than that of any other British poplar; making as handsome floors as the best Norway fir, with the additional advantage that they will not readily take fire, like any resinous wood.

The English aspen, (P. tremula,) considerably resembles our native aspen; but the buds are somewhat gummy. The Athenian poplar, (P. Græca,) is a tree about 40 feet high, with smaller, more rounded, and equally serrated foliage. The common Black European poplar, (P. nigra,) is also a large, rapidly growing tree, with pale-green leaves slightly notched: the buds expand later than most other poplars, and the young leaves are at first somewhat reddish in colour. The Necklace-bearing poplar, (P. monilifera,) so called from the circumstance of the catkins being arranged somewhat like beads in a necklace, is supposed to have been derived from Canada, but there are some doubts respecting its origin: in the south it is generally called the Virginia poplar.

The Lombardy poplar, (P. dilatata,) a native of the banks

of the Po, where it is sometimes called the Cypress poplar, from its resemblance to that tree, is too well known among us to need any description. Only one sex, the female, has hitherto been introduced into this country; and it has consequently produced no seeds here, but has been entirely propagated by suckers from the root.

THE HORSE-CHESUNUT TREE. Esculus.

Nat. Ord. Esculaceæ. Lin. Syst. Heptandria, Monogynia.

A large, showy, much admired, ornamental tree, bearing large leaves composed of seven leaflets, and, in the month of May, beautiful clusters of white flowers, delicately mottled with red and yellow. It is a native of Middle Asia, but flourishes well in the temperate climates of both hemispheres. It was introduced into England, probably from Turkey, about the year 1575: in that country the nuts are often ground into a coarse flour, which is mixed with other food and given to horses that are broken-winded; and from this use the English name of the tree was derived.

A starch has been extracted in considerable quantity from the nuts. The wood is considered valueless in the United States.

The Horse-chestnut is by no means a picturesque tree, being too regularly rounded in its outlines, and too compact and close in its surface, to produce, an agreeable effect in light and shade. But it is nevertheless one of the most beautiful exotic trees which will bear the open air in this climate. The leaves, each made of clusters of six or seven leaflets,

are of a fine dark-green colour; the whole head of foliage has much grandeur and richness in its depth of hue, and massiness of outline; and the regular, rounded, pyramidal shape, is something so different from that of most of our indigenous trees, as to strike the spectator with an air of novelty and distinctness. The great beauty of the Horse-chestnut is the splendour of its inflorescence, surpassing that of almost all our native forest trees: the huge clusters of gay blossoms which every spring are distributed with such luxuriance and profusion over the surface of the foliage, and at the extremity of the branches, give the whole tree the aspect rather of some monstrous flowering shrub, than of an ordinary tree of the largest size. At that season, there can be no more beautiful object to stand singly upon the lawn, particularly if its branches are permitted to grow low down the trunk, and (as they naturally will, as the tree advances,) sweep the green sward with their drooping foliage. Like the lime tree, however, care must be taken, in the modern style, to introduce it rather sparingly in picturesque plantations, and then only as a single tree, or upon the margin of large groups, masses, or plantations, but it may be more freely used in grounds in the graceful style for which it is highly suitable. When handsome avenues or straight lines are wanted, the Horse-chestnut is again admirably suited, from its symmetry and regularity. It is therefore, much, and justly valued for these purposes in our towns and cities, where its deep shade and beauty of blossom are peculiarly desirable, the only objection to it being the early fall of its leaves. The Horse-chestnut is very interesting in its mode of growth. The large buds are thickly covered in winter with a resinous gum, to protect them from the cold and moisture; in the spring, these burst open, and the whole