7. The black poplar grows rarely with us; it is a stronger and taller tree than the white, the leaves more dark, and not so ample. Divers stately ones of these, I remember about the banks of Po in Italy; which flourishing near the old Eridanus (so celebrated by the poets) in which the temerarious Phaeton is said to have been precipitated, doubtless gave argument to that fiction of his sad sister’s metamorphosis, and the amber of their precious tears. It was whiles I was passing down that river towards Ferrara, that I diverted my self with this story of the ingenious poet. I am told there is a mountain-poplar much propagated in Germany about Vienna, and in Bohemia, of which some trees have yielded planks of a yard in breadth; why do we procure none of them? 8. The best use of the poplar, and _abele_ (which are all of them hospitable trees, for any thing thrives under their shades) is for walks and avenues about grounds which are situated low, and near the water, till coming to be very old, they are apt to grow knurry, and out of proportion. The timber is incomparable for all sorts of white wooden vessels, as trays, bowls and other turners ware; and of especial use for the bellows-maker, because it is almost of the nature of cork, and for ship-pumps, though not very solid, yet very close, and yet light; so as it may be us’d for the soles, as well as wooden-heels of shooes, &c. Vitruvius _l. de Materia Cædenda_, reckons it among the building-timbers, _quæ maxime in ædificiis sunt idoneæ_. Likewise to make carts, because it is exceeding light; for vine, and hop-props, and divers vimineous works. The loppings in January are for the fire; and therefore such as have proper grounds, may with ease, and in short time, store themselves for a considerable family, where fuel is dear: but the truth is, it burns untowardly, and rather moulders away, than maintains any solid heat. Of the twigs (with the leaves on) are made brooms. The _brya_, or catkins attract the bees, as do also the leaves (especially of the black) more tenacious of the meldews than most forest-trees, the oak excepted. Of the aspen, our wood-men make hoops, fire-wood, and coals, &c. and of the bark of young trees, in some countries, it serves for candle or torch-wood. The juice of poplar leaves, dropp’d into the ears, asswages the pain; and the buds contus’d, and mix’d with honey, is a good _collyrium_ for the eyes; as the unguent to refrigerate and cause sleep. One thing more is not to be pass’d over, of the white-poplar; that the seeds of misselto being put into holes bored in the bark of this tree, have produced the plant: Experiment sufficient to determine that so long controverted question, concerning spontaneous and æquivocal generations. vid. D. _Raii_ P. L. Append. p. 1918. FOOTNOTES: {132:1} Sir Richard Weston. CHAPTER XV. _Of the Quick-Beam._