the males each consisting of a hairy scale, to which are attached two stamens; the females of a similar scale bearing the ovary. The catkins appear before the leaves, in March or April.
Salix is the old Latin name for Willows and Osiers.
The Lombardy Poplar (Populus fastigiata).
It is an easy step from the Willows to the Poplars, for the
Genus Salix and the Genus Populus together form the Order
Salicineæ. We have only two indigenous species in Britain—the
White Poplar or Abele (P. alba), and the Aspen
(P. tremula). In spite of the fact that it was not introduced until
1758 it may safely be said that the Lombardy Poplar is now a
better known tree than either of our native species. It is the
tree that is so frequently planted as a live screen, to break the
force of the wind or to hide some undesirable prospect. Its
growth is most rapid, and the story is told of a man who
planted this tree in his garden at Great Tew, in Oxfordshire, and
was living fifty years after, by which time his tree had beaten
him considerably in the matter of growth, being then a hundred
and twenty-five feet high! But like most other trees of rapid
growth it attains no great age for a tree, that is and it is
doubtful if it exceeds a century of life. The whole of its
branches and shoots take an upward direction, which gives
the tree the fastigiate or sharp-pointed outline which has
suggested its specific name.
In our native Poplars the shoots are downy; fastigiata they are smooth. The leaves are borne on long compressed stalks, which give them the ever-tremulous movement so well known in connection with the Aspen. As in the Willows, the sexes are on separate trees, and the flowers all in catkins. There is no perianth, a single bract-like scale serving instead, though there is a cup-shaped organ, within which is found, in one plant, a one-celled ovary, and in the other sex from twelve to twenty
