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.
