Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 15, PLA-RAM

POP
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POP
in the fouth aifle of the church at Wellington in So-
merfetfhire, where he generally refided as often as it
was in his power to retire. He was thought fome-
what fevere in the execution of the law againfl capital
offenders : but his feverity had the happy effeft of re¬
ducing the number of highway robbers. He wrote,
1. Reports and cafes adjudged in the time of Queen
Elizabeth. 2. Refolutions and judgments upon cafes
and matters agitated in all the courts at Weftminfter
in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
POPLAR, in botany. See Populus.
POPLITiEUS, in anatomy, a fmall mufcle obliquely
pyramidal, fituated under the ham. See Anatomy,
'Table of the Mu fetes.
POPPY, in botany. See Opium and Papaver.
POPULAR, fomething that relates to the common
people.
POPULATION, means the ftate of a country with
refj) eft to the number of people. SeeZ?i//j of Mortality
and Political-Arithmetic.
The queftion concerning- the number of men exifting
upon earth, has been varioufly determined by different
writers. Riccioli ftates the population of the globe at
1000 millions, Voffius at 500; the Journalifts of Tre-
voux at 720 ; and the editor (Xavier de Feller) of the
fmall Geographical Di&ionary of Vofgien, reprinted
at Paris in 1778, at 370 millions. This latl eftimate
is perhaps too low, although the writer profeffes to
have taken confiderable pains to afeertain the point
with as much accuracy as the nature of tire fubjedt will
admit. It may, perhaps, not be deemed unworthy the
attention of the curious fpeculatill to obferve, that af-
fuming the more probable ftatement of the learned Je-
fuits of Trevoux, and that the world has exiffed about
6006 years in its prefent ftate of population, then the
whole number of perfons who have ever exifted upon
earth fince the days of Adam amounts only to about
one hundred and thirty thoufand millions; becaufe
720,000,000X182 (the number of generations in 6006
years) =131,040,000,000. See on this fubjeft the au¬
thors above mentioned, as likewife Beaufobre’s Etude de
in Politiqne.
With regard to the population of England, the rea¬
der may confult, together with our article Political-
ylritbrnetic, An Inquiry into the prefent State of Popu¬
lation, &c. by W. Wales, F. R. S. and Mr Hewlett’s
Examination of Dr Price’s Effay, on the fame fub-
jeft.
POPULUS, the Poplar. : A genus of the oftandria
order, belonging to the dicecia clafs of plants ; and in the
natural method ranking under the 50th order, Amen-
tacea. rI he calyx of the amentum is a lacerated, ob-
long, and fquamous leaf; the corolla is turbinated, ob¬
lique, and entire. The female has the calyx of the a-
mentum and corolla the fame as in the male ; the ftigma
is quadrifid ; the capfule bilocular, with many pappous
feeds.
I he poplar, one of the moft beautiful of the aquatic
ti ees, has frequently been introduced into the poetical
deferiptions of the ancients ; as by Virgil, Ed. vii. 66.
ix. 41. Georg, ii. 66. iv. 511. Ain. viii. 31. 276. by
Ovid, Amom. Parid. 27. by Horace, Carm. ii. 3. and
hy Catulus, Nupt. Pi/, et Thet. 290, &c. &c.
Species, i. The alba, or abele-tree, grows natural-
in the temperate parts of Europe. Its leaves are
large, and divided into three, four, or five lobes, indent- Populus.
ed on their edges, of a very dark colour on their up- "* v-"
per fide, but very white and downy on the under fide ;
Handing upon footftalks an inch long. The young
branches have a purple bark, and are covered with
a white down ; but the bark of the ftem and older
branches is grey. In the beginning of April, the
male flowers or catkins appear, which are cylindrical,
and about three inches long. About a week after
come out the female flowers or catkins, which have
no ftamina like thofe of the male. Soon after thefe
come out, the male catkins fall off; and in five or fix
weeks after the female flowers will have ripe feeds in-
clofed in a hairy covering. The catkins will then drop,
and the feeds be wafted by the winds to a great di-
ftance. 2. The major, or white poplar, has its leaves
rounder than the firft, and not much above half their
fize: they are indented on their edges, and are downy
on their under fide, but not fo white as thofe of the
former, nor are their upper furfaces of fuch a deep
green colour. 3. The nigra, or black poplar, has oval
heart-fliaped leaves, flightly crenated on their edges ;
they are fmooth on both fides, and of a light green co¬
lour. 4. The tremula, or afpen-tree, has roundifh, an¬
gularly indented leaves : they are ftnooth on both fides,
and Hand on long footftalks, and fo are fhaken by the leaft
wind ; from whence it has the title of the trembling pop¬
lar, or afpen-tree. 5. The balfamifera, or Carolina pop¬
lar, is a native of Carolina, where it becomes a large
tree. The flioots of this fort grow very ftrong in Bri¬
tain, and are generally angular ; with a light green bark
like the willow. The leaves on young trees, and alfo
thofe on the lower flioots, are very large, almoft heart-
fhaped, and crenated ; but thofe upon the older trees are
fmaller : as the trees advance, their bark becomes light¬
er, approaching to a greyifh colour. 6. The tacama-
haca, grows naturally in Canada and other parts of
North America. This is a tree of a middling growth,
fending out on every fide many fhort thick flioots,
which are covered with a light brown bark, garniflied
with leaves differing from one another in fliape and fize ;
moft of them are almoft heart-fliaped ; but fome are oval,
and others nearly fpear-fhaped ; they are whitifti on their
under fide, but green on their upper.
Culture. Thefe trees may be propagated either by
layers or cuttings, as alfo from fuckers which the white
poplars fend up from their roots in great plenty. The
belt time for tranfplanting thefe fuckers is in Oftober,
when their leaves begin to decay. Thefe may be pla¬
ced in a nurfery for two or three years, to get ftrength
before they are planted out where they are defigned to re¬
main ; but if they are propagated from cuttings, it is
better to defer the doing of that until February, at
which time truncheons of two or three feet long ftiould
be thruft about a foot and a half into the ground.—
Thefe will readily take root; and if the foil in which
they are planted be moift, they will arrive at a confide¬
rable bulk in a few years. The black poplar is lefs apt
to take root from large truncheons; therefore it is a
better method to plant cuttings of it about a foot and
a half in length, thrufting them a foot deep in the
ground. This fort will grow almoft on any foil, but
will thrive beft in moift places. The Carolina poplar
may alfo be propagated by cuttings or layers ; but the
laft is the method generally practifed, and the plants
raifed