highroad from Ariminum to Aquileia along the Adriatic coast. It no doubt originally came into use when Aquileia was founded as a frontier fortress of Italy in 181 B.C., and Polybius gives the distance correctly as 178 m. In 132 it was reconstructed (munita) by the consul P. Popilius, one of whose milestones has been found near Atria. It ran along the shore strip (Lido) from Ariminum to Ravenna (33 m.), where it was usual in imperial times for travellers to take ship and go by canal to Altinum (q.v.), and there resume their journey by road, though we find the stations right through on the Tabula Peutingeriana, and Narses marched in 552 from Aquileia to Ravenna. (T. As.)
POPINJAY (O. Fr. papegai, or popinjay, onomatopoeic,
original), an old name for a parrot. Except in its transferred
sense of a dressed-up, vain or conceited, empty-headed person,
the word is now only used historically of a representation or
image of a parrot swinging from a high pole and used as a mark
for archery or shooting matches. This shooting at the popinjay
(see Archery) was formerly a favourite sport. “Popinjay”
is still the proper heraldic term for a parrot as a bearing or
charge.
POPLAR, an eastern metropolitan borough of London,
England, bounded N. by Hackney, S. by the river Thames, and
W. by Stepney and Bethnal Green, and extending E. to the
boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901), 168,822.
The river Lea, which the eastern boundary generally follows, is
believed to have been crossed towards the north of the modern
borough by a Roman road, the existence of which is recalled by
the district-name of Old Ford; while Bow (formerly Stratford-le-Bow
or Stratford-atte-Bowe) was so named from the “bow”
or arched bridge which took the place of the ford in the time of
Henry II. South of these districts lies Bromley; in the south-east
the borough includes Blackwall; and a deep southward bend
of the Thames here embraces the Isle of Dogs. Poplar falls
within the great area commonly associated with a poor and
densely crowded population under the name of the “East End.”
It is a district of narrow, squalid streets and mean houses, among
which, however, the march of modern improvement may be seen
in the erection of model dwellings, mission houses and churches,
and various public buildings. In the north a part of Victoria
Park is included. In Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs streets
give place to the extensive East and West India Docks (opened
in 1806) and Millwall Dock, with shipbuilding, engineering,
chemical and other works along the river. Blackwall has been
a shipping centre from early times. From the south of the
Isle of Dogs (the portion called Cubitt Town) a tunnel for foot-passengers
(1902) connects with Greenwich on the opposite
shore of the Thames, and lower down the river is the fine Blackwall
tunnel, carrying a wide roadway, completed by the London
County Council in 1897 at a cost, inclusive of incidental expenses,
of £1,383,502. Among institutions the Poplar Accidents Hospital
may be mentioned. Near the East India Docks is the settlement
of St Frideswide, supported by Christ Church, Oxford. In
Canning Town, which continues this district of poverty across
the Lea, and so outside the county of London, are Mansfield
House, founded from Mansfield College, Oxford; and a Women's
Settlement, especially notable for its medical work. The
metropolitan borough of Poplar includes the Bow and Bromley
and the Poplar divisions of the Tower Hamlets parliamentary
borough, each returning one member. The borough council
consists of a mayor, 7 aldermen and 42 councillors. Area,
2327·7 acres.
POPLAR (Lat. Populus), the name of a small group of catkin-bearing
trees belonging to the order Salicaceae. The catkins
of the poplars differ from those of the nearly allied willows in
the presence of a rudimentary perianth, of obliquely cup-shaped
form, within the toothed bracteal scales; the male flowers
contain from eight to thirty stamens; the fertile bear a one-celled
(nearly divided) ovary, surmounted by the deeply cleft
stigmas; the two-valved capsule contains several seeds, each
furnished with a long tuft of silky or cotton-like hairs. The
leaves are broader than in most willows, and are generally
either deltoid or ovate in shape, often cordate at the base, and
frequently with slender petioles vertically flattened. Many of
the species attain a large size, and all are of very rapid growth.
The poplars are almost entirely confined to the north temperate
zone, but a few approach or even pass its northern limit, and they
are widely distributed within that area; they show, like the
willows, a partiality for moist ground and often line the river-sides
in otherwise treeless districts. There are about twenty species,
but the number cannot be very accurately defined—several,
usually regarded as distinct, being probably merely variable
forms of the same type, and the ease with which the trees intercross
has led to the appearance of many hybrids. All yield a
soft, easily-worked timber, which, though very perishable when
exposed to weather, possesses sufficient durability when kept
dry to give the trees a certain economic value. Many of the
species are used for paper-making.
Of the European kinds one of the most important and best marked forms is the white poplar or abele, P. alba, a tree of large size, with rounded spreading head and curved branches, which, like the trunk, are covered with a greyish white bark, becoming much furrowed on old stems. The leaves are ovate or nearly round in general outline, but with deeply waved, more or less lobed and indented margins and cordate base; the upper side is of a dark green tint, but the lower surface is clothed with a dense white down, which likewise covers the young shoots—giving, with the bark, a hoary aspect to the whole tree. As in all poplars, the catkins expand in early spring, long before the leaves unfold; the ovaries bear four linear stigma lobes; the capsules ripen in May. A nearly related form, which may be regarded as a sub-species, canescens, the grey poplar of the nurseryman, is distinguished from the true abele by its smaller, less deeply cut leaves, which are grey on the upper side, but not so hoary beneath as those of P. alba; the pistil has eight stigma lobes. Both trees occasionally attain a height of 90 ft. or more, but rarely continue to form sound timber beyond the first half-century of growth, though the trunk will sometimes endure for a hundred and fifty years. The wood is very white, and, from its soft and even grain, is employed by turners and toy-makers, while, being tough and little liable to split, it is also serviceable for the construction of packing cases, the lining of carts and waggons, and many similar purposes; when thoroughly seasoned it makes good flooring planks, but shrinks much in drying, weighing about 58 ℔ per cubic foot when green, but only 3312 ℔ when dry. The white poplar is an ornamental tree, from its graceful though somewhat irregular growth and its dense hoary foliage; it has, however, the disadvantage of throwing up numerous suckers for some yards around the trunk.
The grey and white poplars are usually multiplied by long cuttings; the growth is so rapid in a moist loamy soil that, according to London, cuttings 9 ft. in length, planted beside a stream, formed in twelve years trunks 10 in. in diameter. Both these allied forms occur throughout central and southern Europe, but, though now abundant in England, it is doubtful whether they are there indigenous. P. alba suffers much from the ravages of wood-eating larvae, and also from fungoid growths, especially where the branches have been removed by pruning or accident.
P. nigra, the black poplar, is a tree of large growth, with dark, deeply-furrowed bark on the trunk, and ash-coloured branches; the smooth deltoid leaves, serrated regularly on the margin, are of the deep green tint which has given name to the tree; the petioles, slightly compressed, are only about half the length of the leaves. The black poplar is common in central and southern Europe and in some of the adjacent parts of Asia, but, though abundantly planted in Britain, is not there indigenous. The wood is of a yellowish tint. In former days this was the prevalent poplar in Britain, and the timber was employed for the purposes to which that of other species is applied, but has been superseded by P. monilifera and its varieties; it probably furnished the poplar wood of the Romans, which, from its lightness and soft tough grain, was in esteem for shield-making; in continental Europe it is still in some request; the bark, in Russia, is used for tanning leather, while in Kamchatka it is sometimes
