means the state of a country with respect to the number of people. See Bills of Mortality, and Political Arithmetic.

The question concerning the number of men existing upon earth has been variously determined by different writers. Riccioli states the population of the globe at 1000 millions, Vossius at 500; the journalists of Trevoux at 720; and the editor (Xavier de Feller) of the small Geographical Dictionary of Vosgien, reprinted at Paris in 1778, at 370 millions. This last estimate is perhaps too low, although the writer professes to have taken considerable pains to ascertain the point with as much accuracy as the nature of the subject will admit. It may, perhaps, not be deemed unworthy the attention of the curious speculative observer, that assuming the more probable statement of the learned Jesuits of Trevoux, and that the world has existed about 6006 years in its present state of population, then the whole number of persons who have ever existed upon earth since the days of Adam amounts only to about one hundred and thirty thousand millions; because $720,000,000 \times 182$ (the number of generations in 6006 years) = $13,140,000,000$. See on this subject the authors above mentioned, as likewise Beausobre's Étude de la Politique.

With regard to the population of England, the reader may consult, together with our article Political Arithmetic, An Inquiry into the Present State of Population, &c. by W. Wales, F.R.S.; and Mr Howlett's Examination of Dr Price's Essay on the same subject. But for a later account of the population of England, see the different counties under their proper names; for that of Scotland, see the different counties, and for the population general population, see Scotland.

POPLAR, the Poplar, a genus of plants belonging to the dioica class; and in the natural method ranking under the 50th order, Amentaceae. See Botany Index.

The poplar, one of the most beautiful of the aquatic trees, has frequently been introduced into the poetical descriptions of the ancients; as by Virgil, Ec. vii. 66. ix. 41. Georg. ii. 66. iv. 511. Æn. viii. 31. 276.; by Ovid, Amou. Parid. 27.; by Horace, Carm. ii. 3. and by Catullus, Nupt. Phil. et Thet. 290., &c. &c.