Link to an image of this page [C7r f23r]Populus alba.
The white poplar
Herculeos crines bicolor quòd populus ornet,[1]
Temporis alternat noxque diesque vices.[2]
The two-coloured poplar wreathes the locks of Hercules - and so its dark and light show time’s alternating changes.
1. The white poplar was dedicated to Hercules. According to Pausanias, Periegesis, 5.14.2, Hercules introduced it to Greece. According to another story, Hercules on his way back from the Underworld garlanded his head with stems from a white poplar growing beside the Acheron, a memorial of the nymph Leuke (White) carried off by Pluto.
2. noxque diesque, ‘its dark and light’ (lit. night and day), a reference to the dark green surface and white underside of the white poplar leaf. According to Pliny, Natural History, 16.36.87, the leaves of the white poplar turn over at the summer solstice. Hercules was equated with the sun: Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.20.6 and 10.
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Section: LES ARBRES. View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [Q7v p254]
Le Coing.
A la nouvelle espouse donnoit l’on
Jadis des coingz, par la loy de Solon.[1]
Bons sont au coeur: & rendent bonne aleine
Pour bien penser: sans parolle villaine.
Les Coingz confortent le coeur, & inspirent doulce alei-
ne à la bouche. Et d’iceulx les presens jadis faictz aulx nou
velles espouses, les admonnestoient de avoir le coeur net
en bonne, & honneste pensée: & la bouche de bonne odeur,
en pudicques, & honnestes parolles.
1. See Plutarch, Coniugalia praecepta, Moralia 138 D.
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