All lovers of nature admire the Aspen on account of its name, which,
like that of the willow, is poetical, both from its musical sound and
from association. There is no tree more celebrated in emblematical
literature than the Aspen. Its sensitiveness to the least movement of
the wind, its restless motions, as if some morbid occasion of disquiet
unceasingly attended it, have given it a place in the poetry of all
nations. But setting aside its symbolical meanings, its suggestions of
fickleness and caprice, of levity and irresolution, of impatience and
instability, and the use that has been made of it in satirical writings
to symbolize the “inconstant temper of woman,” the beauty and motion of
its foliage alone would always attract admiration. As the Aspen is the
only tree whose leaf trembles when the wind is apparently calm, its
gentle rustling is always associated with still summer weather.