50-60 feet high; trunk 8-15 inches in diameter, tapering, surmounted by
a very open, irregular head of small, spreading branches; spray sparse,
consisting of short, stout, leafy rounded shoots set at a wide angle;
distinguished by the slenderness of its habit, the light color of trunk
and branches, the deep red of the sterile catkins in early spring, and
the almost ceaseless flutter of the delicate foliage.
=Bark.=--Trunk pale green, smooth, dark-blotched below the branches,
becoming ash-gray and roughish in old trees; season's shoots dark
reddish-brown or green, shining; bitter.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8-1/4 inch long, reddish-brown and
lustrous, usually smooth, ovate, acute, often slightly incurved at apex,
the upper often appressed. Leaves 1-2-1/2 inches long, breadth usually
equal to or exceeding the length, yellowish-green and ciliate when
young, dark dull green above when mature, lighter beneath, glabrous on
both sides, bright yellow in autumn; outline broadly ovate to orbicular,
finely serrate or wavy-edged, with incurved, glandular-tipped teeth,
apex rather abruptly acute or short-acuminate; base acute, truncate or
slightly heart-shaped, 3-nerved; leafstalk slender, strongly flattened
at right angles to the plane of the blade, bending to the slightest
breath of air; stipules lanceolate, silky, soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile catkins 1-3 inches long, fertile
at first about the same length, gradually elongating; bracts cut into
several lanceolate or linear divisions, silky-hairy; stamens about 10;
anthers red: ovary short-stalked; stigmas two, 2-lobed, red.
=Fruit.=--June. Capsules, in elongated catkins, conical; seeds numerous,
white-hairy.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England in the most exposed
situations; grows almost anywhere, but prefers a moist, rich loam; grows
rapidly; foliage and spray thin; generally short-lived; often used as a
screen for slow-growing trees; type seldom found in nurseries, but one
or two horticultural forms are occasionally offered. Propagated from
seed or cuttings.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.--Populus tremuloides.]
1. Branch with sterile catkins.
2. Sterile flower.
3. Branch with fertile catkins.
4. Fertile flower.
5. Fruiting branch.
6. Branch with mature leaves.
7. Variant leaves.
=Populus grandidentata, Michx.=
POPLAR. LARGE-TOOTHED ASPEN.
=Habitat and Range.=--In rich or poor soils; woods, hillsides, borders
of streams.
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec, and Ontario.
New England,--common, occasional at altitudes of 2000 feet or more.
South to Pennsylvania and Delaware, along the mountains to
Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee; west to Minnesota.
=Habit.=--A tree 30-45 feet in height and 1 foot to 20 inches in
diameter at the ground, sometimes attaining much greater dimensions;
trunk erect, with an open, unsymmetrical, straggling head; branches
distant, small and crooked; branchlets round; spray sparse, consisting
of short, stout, leafy shoots; in time and manner of blossoming,
constant motion of foliage, and general habit, closely resembling _P.
tremuloides._
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk on old trees dark grayish-brown or blackish,
irregularly furrowed, broad-ridged, the outer portions separated into
small, thickish scales; trunk of young trees soft greenish-gray;
branches greenish-gray, darker on the underside; branchlets dark
greenish-gray, roughened with leaf-scars; season's twigs in fall dark
reddish-brown, at first tomentose, becoming smooth and shining.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 1/8 inch long, mostly divergent, light
chestnut, more or less pubescent, dusty-looking, ovate, acute. Leaves
3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, densely white-tomentose when
opening, usually smooth on both sides when mature, dark green above,
lighter beneath, bright yellow in autumn; outline roundish-ovate,
coarsely and irregularly sinuate-toothed; teeth acutish; sinuses in
shallow curves; apex acute; base truncate or slightly heart-shaped;
leafstalks long, strongly flattened at right angles to the plane of the
blade; stipules thread-like, soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--March to April. Sterile catkins 1-3 inches long,
fertile at first about the same length, but gradually elongating;
bracts cut into several lanceolate divisions, silky-hairy; stamens about
10; anthers red: ovaries short-stalked; stigmas two, 2-lobed, red.
=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins at length 3-6 inches long; capsule conical,
acute, roughish-scurfy, hairy at tip: seeds numerous, hairy.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows almost
anywhere, but prefers moist, rich loam; grows rapidly and is safely
transplanted, but is unsymmetrical, easily broken by the wind, and
short-lived; seldom offered by nurserymen, but readily procured from
northern collectors of native plants. Useful to grow for temporary
effect with permanent trees, as it will fail by the time the desirable
kinds are well established. Propagated from seed or cuttings.
=Note.=--Points of difference between _P. tremuloides_ and _P.
grandidentata_. These trees may be best distinguished in early spring by
the color of the unfolding leaves. In the sunlight the head of _P.
tremuloides_ appears yellowish-green, while that of _P. grandidentata_
is conspicuously cotton white. The leaves of _P. grandidentata_ are
larger and more coarsely toothed, and the main branches go off usually
at a broader angle. The buds of _P. grandidentata_ are mostly divergent,
dusty-looking, dull; of _P. tremuloides_, mostly appressed, highly
polished with a resinous lustre.
[Illustration: PLATE XV.--Populus grandidentata.]
1. Branch with sterile catkins.
2. Sterile flower, back view,
3. Sterile flower, front view.
4. Branch with fertile catkins.
5. Bract of fertile flower.
6. Fertile flower, front view.
7. Fruiting branch with mature leaves.
8. Fruit.
9. Fruit.
=Populus heterophylla, L.=
POPLAR. SWAMP POPLAR. COTTONWOOD.
=Habitat and Range.=--In or along swamps occasionally or often
overflowed; rare, local, and erratically distributed.
Connecticut,--frequent in the southern sections; Bozrah (J. N. Bishop);
Guilford, in at least three wood-ponds (W. E. Dudley _in lit._), New
Haven, and near Norwich (W. A. Setchell).
Following the eastern coast in wide belts from New York (Staten
island and Long island) south to Georgia; west along the Gulf coast
to western Louisiana, and northward along the Mississippi and Ohio
basins to Arkansas, Indiana, and Illinois.
=Habit.=--A slender, medium-sized tree, attaining a height of 30-50
feet, reaching farther south a maximum of 90 feet; trunk 9-18 inches in
diameter, usually branching high up, forming a rather open hemispherical
or narrow-oblong head; branches irregular, short, rising, except the
lower, at a sharp angle; branchlets stout, roundish, varying in color,
degree of pubescence, and glossiness, becoming rough after the first
year with the raised leaf-scars; spray sparse.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk dark ash-gray, very rough, and broken into
loosely attached narrow plates in old trees; in young trees light
ash-gray, smooth at first, becoming in a few years roughish, low-ridged.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds conical, acute, more or less resinous.
Leaves 3-6 inches long, two-thirds as wide, densely white-tomentose when
young, at length dark green on the upper side, lighter beneath and
smooth except along the veins; outline ovate, wavy-toothed; base
heart-shaped, lobes often overlapping; apex obtuse; leafstalk long,
round, downy; stipules soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile catkins when expanded 3-4 inches
long, at length pendent; scales cut into irregular divisions, reddish;
stamens numerous, anthers oblong, dark red: fertile catkins spreading,
few and loosely flowered, gradually elongating; scales reddish-brown;
ovary short-stalked; styles 2-3, united at the base; stigmas 2-3,
conspicuous.
=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins spreading or drooping, 4-5 inches long:
capsules usually erect, ovoid, acute, shorter than or equaling the
slender pedicels: seeds numerous, white-hairy.
=Horticultural Value.=--Not procurable in New England nurseries or from
collectors; its usefulness in landscape gardening not definitely known.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.--Populus heterophylla.]
1. Winter buds.
2. Branch with sterile catkin.
3. Sterile flower.
4. Scale of sterile flower.
5. Branch with fertile catkin.
6. Fertile flower.
7. Fruiting branch with mature leaves.
=Populus deltoides, Marsh.=
_Populus monilifera, Ait._
COTTONWOOD. POPLAR.
=Habitat and Range.=--In moist soil; river banks and basins, shores of
lakes, not uncommon in drier locations.
Throughout Quebec and Ontario to the base of the Rocky mountains.
Maine,--not reported; New Hampshire,--restricted to the immediate
vicinity of the Connecticut river, disappearing near the northern part
of Westmoreland; Vermont,--western sections, abundant along the shores
of the Hoosac river in Pownal and along Lake Champlain (W. W.
Eggleston); in the Connecticut valley as far north as Brattleboro
(_Flora of Vermont_, 1900); Massachusetts,--along the Connecticut and
its tributaries; Rhode Island,--occasional; Connecticut,--occasional
eastward, common along the Connecticut, Farmington, and Housatonic
rivers.
South to Florida; west to the Rocky mountains.
=Habit.=--A stately tree, 75-100 feet in height; trunk 3-5 feet in
diameter, light gray, straight or sometimes slightly inclined, of nearly
uniform size to the point of branching, surmounted by a noble,
broad-spreading, open, symmetrical head, the lower branches massive,
horizontal, or slightly ascending, more or less pendulous at the
extremities, the upper coarse and spreading, rising at a sharper angle;
branchlets stout; foliage brilliant green, easily set in motion; the
sterile trees gorgeous in spring with dark red pendent catkins.
=Bark.=--In old trees thick, ash-gray, separated into deep, straight
furrows with rounded ridges; in young trees light yellowish-green,
smooth; season's shoots greenish, marked with pale longitudinal lines.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds large, conical, smooth, shining. Leaves
3-6 inches long, scarcely less in width, variable in color and shape,
ordinarily dark green and shining above, lighter beneath, ribs raised on
both sides; outline broadly ovate, irregularly crenate-toothed; apex
abruptly acute or acuminate; base truncate, slightly heart-shaped or
sometimes acute; stems long, slender, somewhat flattened at right angles
to the plane of the blade; stipules linear, soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--April to May. In solitary, densely flowered catkins;
bracts lacerate-fringed, each bract subtending a cup-shaped scale;
stamens very numerous; anthers longer than the filaments, dark red:
fertile catkins elongating to 5 or 6 inches; ovary ovoid; stigmas 3 or
4, nearly sessile, spreading.
=Fruit.=--Capsules ovate, rough, short-stalked; seeds densely cottony.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in southern-central New England; grows
rapidly in almost any soil and is readily obtainable in nurseries. Where
an immediate effect is desired, the cottonwood serves the purpose
excellently and frequently makes very fine large individual trees, but
the wood is soft and likely to be broken by wind or ice. Usually
propagated from cuttings.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.--Populus deltoides.]
1. Winter buds.
2. Branch with sterile catkins.
3. Sterile flower, back view.
4. Sterile flower, front view.
5. Scale of sterile flower.
6. Fertile flower.
7. Fruiting catkin.
8. Branch with mature leaves.
9. Variant leaf.
=Populus balsamifera, L.=
BALSAM. POPLAR. BALM OF GILEAD.
=Habitat and Range.=--Alluvial soils; river banks, valleys, borders of
swamps, woods.
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west to Manitoba; northward to the
coast of Alaska and along the Mackenzie river to the Arctic circle.
Maine,--common; New Hampshire,--Connecticut river valley, generally near
the river, becoming more plentiful northward; Vermont,--frequent;
Massachusetts and Rhode Island,--not reported; Connecticut,--extending
along the Housatonic river at New Milford for five or six miles, perhaps
derived from an introduced tree (C. K. Averill, _Rhodora_, II, 35).
West through northern New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Dakota (Black
Hills), Montana, beyond the Rockies to the Pacific coast.
=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 30-75 feet high, trunk 1-3 feet in
diameter, straight; branches horizontal or nearly so, slender for size
of tree, short; head open, narrow-oblong or oblong-conical; branchlets
mostly terete; foliage thin.
=Bark.=--In old trees dark gray or ash-gray, firm-ridged, in young trees
smooth; branchlets grayish; season's shoots reddish or greenish brown,
sparsely orange-dotted.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds 3/4 inch long, appressed or slightly
divergent, conical, slender, acute, resin-coated, sticky, fragrant when
opening. Leaves 3-6 inches long, about one-half as wide, yellowish when
young, when mature bright green, whitish below; outline ovate-lanceolate
or ovate, finely toothed, gradually tapering to an acute or acuminate
apex; base obtuse to rounded, sometimes truncate or heart-shaped;
leafstalk much shorter than the blade, terete or nearly so; stipules
soon falling. The leaves of var. _intermedia_ are obovate to oval; those
of var. _latifolia_ closely approach the leaves of _P. candicans_.
=Inflorescence.=--April. Sterile 3-4 inches long, fertile at first about
the same length, gradually elongating, loosely flowered; bracts
irregularly and rather narrowly cut-toothed, each bract subtending a
cup-shaped disk; stamens numerous; anthers red: ovary short-stalked;
stigmas two, 2-lobed, large, wavy-margined.
=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins drooping, 4-6 inches long: capsules ovoid,
acute, longer than the pedicels, green: seeds numerous, hairy.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all
excepting very wet soils, in full sun or light shade, and in exposed
situations; of rapid growth, but subject to the attacks of borers, which
kill the branches and make the head unsightly; also spreads from the
roots, and therefore not desirable for ornamental plantations; most
useful in the formation of shelter-belts; readily transplanted but not
common in nurseries. Propagated from cuttings.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.--Populus balsamifera.]
1. Branch with sterile flowers.
2. Sterile flower, back view.
3. Sterile flower, side view.
4. Scales of sterile flower.
5. Branch with fertile catkins.
6. Fertile flower.
7. Fruiting catkins, mature.
8. Branch with mature leaves.
=Populus candicans, Ait.=
_Populus balsamifera_, var. _candicans, Gray._
BALM OF GILEAD.
=Habitat and Range.=--In a great variety of soils; usually in cultivated
or pasture lands in the vicinity of dwellings; infrequently found in a
wild state. The original site of this tree has not been definitely
agreed upon. Professor L. H. Bailey reports that it is indigenous in
Michigan, and northern collectors find both sexes in New Hampshire and
Vermont; while in central and southern New England the staminate tree is
rarely if ever seen, and the pistillate flowers seldom if ever mature
perfect fruit. The evidence seems to indicate a narrow belt extending
through northern New Hampshire, Vermont and Michigan, with the
intermediate southern sections of the Province of Ontario as the home of
the Balm of Gilead.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,--occasional; Ontario,--frequent.
New England,--occasional throughout.
South to New Jersey; west to Michigan and Minnesota.
=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 40-60 feet high; trunk 1-3 feet in
diameter, straight or inclined, sometimes beset with a few crooked,
bushy branchlets; head very variable in shape and size; solitary in open
ground, commonly _broad-based, spacious, and pyramidal_, among other
trees more often rather small; loosely and irregularly branched, with
sparse, coarse, and often crooked spray; _foliage dark green, handsome,
and abundant_; all parts characterized by a strong and peculiar resinous
fragrance. A single tree multiplying by suckers often becomes parent of
a grove covering half an acre, more or less, made up of trees of all
ages and sizes.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk and lower portions of large branches dark gray,
rough, irregularly striate and firm in old trees; in young trees and
upon smaller branches smooth, soft grayish-green, often flanged by
prominent ridges running down the stalk from the vertices of the
triangular leaf-scars; season's shoots often flanged, shining reddish or
olive green, with occasional longitudinal gray lines, viscid.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds dark reddish-brown, rather closely set
along the stalk, conical or somewhat angled, narrow, often falcate,
sharp-pointed, resinous throughout, viscid, aromatic, exhaling a
powerful odor when the scales expand, terminal about 3/4 inch long.
Leaves 4-6 inches long and nearly as wide, yellowish-green at first,
becoming dark green and smooth on the upper surface with the exception
of a _minute pubescence along the veins_, dull light green beneath,
finely serrate with incurved glandular points, usually ciliate with
minute stiff, whitish hairs; base heart-shaped; apex short-pointed;
petioles about 1-1-1/2 inches long, _more or less hairy_, somewhat
flattened at right angles to the blade; stipules short, ovate, acute,
soon falling.
=Inflorescence.=--Similar to that of _P. balsamifera_.
=Fruit.=--Similar to that of _P. balsamifera_.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; has an attractive
foliage and grows rapidly in all soils and situations, but the branches
are easily broken by the wind, and its habit of suckering makes it
objectionable in ornamental ground; occasionally offered by nurserymen
and collectors. Propagated from cuttings.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.--Populus candicans.]
1. Winter bud.
2. Branch with fertile catkins.
3. Fertile flower.
4. Fruiting branch.
=Populus alba, L.=
ABELE. WHITE POPLAR. SILVER-LEAF POPLAR.
=Range.=--Widely distributed in the Old World, extending in Europe from
southern Sweden to the Mediterranean, throughout northern Africa, and
eastward in Asia to the northwestern Himalayas. Introduced from England
by the early settlers and soon established in the colonial towns, as in
Plymouth and Duxbury, on the western shore of Massachusetts bay. Planted
or spontaneous over a wide area.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,--occasional.
New England,--occasional throughout, local, sometimes common.
Southward to Virginia.
=Habit.=--A handsome tree, resembling _P. grandidentata_ more than any
other American poplar, but of far nobler proportions; 40-75 feet high
and 2-4 feet in diameter at the ground; growing much larger in England;
head large, spreading; round-topped, in spring enveloped in a dazzling
cloud of cotton white, which resolves itself later into two
conspicuously contrasting surfaces of dark green and silvery white.
=Bark.=--Light gray, smooth upon young trees, in old trees furrowed upon
the trunk.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds not viscid, cottony. Leaves 1-4 inches
long, densely white-tomentose while expanding, when mature dark green
above and white-tomentose to glabrous beneath; outline ovate or deltoid,
3-5-lobed and toothed or simply toothed, teeth irregular; base
heart-shaped or truncate; apex acute to obtuse; leafstalk long, slender,
compressed; stipules soon falling.
=Inflorescence and Fruit.=--April to May. Sterile catkins 2-4 inches
long, cylindrical, fertile at first shorter,--stamens 6-16; anthers
purple: capsules 1/4 inch long, narrow-ovoid; seeds hairy.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy. Thrives even in very poor soils and in
exposed situations; grows rapidly in good soils; of distinctive value in
landscape gardening but not adapted for planting along streets and upon
lawns of limited area on account of its habit of throwing out numerous
suckers and its liability to damage from heavy winds. The sides of
country roads where the abele has been planted are sometimes obstructed
for a considerable distance by the thrifty shoots from underground.
=Salix discolor. Muhl.=
PUSSY WILLOW. GLAUCOUS WILLOW.
=Habitat and Range.=--Low, wet grounds; banks of streams, swamps, moist
hillsides.
Nova Scotia to Manitoba.
Maine,--abundant; common throughout the other New England states.
South to North Carolina; west to Illinois and Missouri.
=Habit.=--Mostly a tall shrub with several stems, but occasionally
assuming a tree-like habit, with a height of 15-20 feet and trunk
diameter of 5-10 inches; one tree reported at Laconia, N. H., 35 feet
high (F. W. Batchelder); branches few, stout, ascending, forming a very
open, hemispherical head.
=Bark.=--Trunk reddish-brown; branches dark-colored; branchlets light
green, orange-dotted.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds ovate-conical; apex obtuse to acute.
Leaves simple, alternate, 2-4 inches long, smooth and bright green
above, smooth and whitish beneath when fully grown; outline
ovate-lanceolate to narrowly oblong-oval, crenulate-serrate to entire;
apex acute, base acute and entire; leafstalk short; stipules toothed or
entire.
=Inflorescence.=--March to April. Appearing before the leaves in
catkins, sterile and fertile on separate plants, occasionally both kinds
on the same plant, sessile,--sterile spreading or erect,
oblong-cylindrical, silky; calyx none; petals none; bracts entire,
reddish-brown turning to black, oblong to oblong-obovate, with long,
silky hairs; stamens 2; filaments distinct: fertile catkins spreading;
bracts oblong to ovate, hairy; style short; stigma deeply 4-lobed.
=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins somewhat declined: capsules ovate-conical,
tomentose, stem two-thirds the length of the scale: seeds numerous.
=Horticultural Value.=--Picturesque in blossom and fruit; its value
dependent chiefly upon its matted roots for holding wet banks, and its
ability to withstand considerable shade. Sold by plant collectors;
easily propagated from cuttings.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.--Salix discolor.]
1. Leaf-buds.
2. Branch with sterile catkins.
3. Sterile flower.
4. Branch with fertile catkins.
5. Fertile flower.
6. Fruiting branch.
7. Mature leaves.
=Salix nigra, Marsh.=
BLACK WILLOW
=Habitat and Range.=--In low grounds, along streams or ponds, river
flats.
New Brunswick to western Ontario.
New England,--occasional throughout, frequent along the larger streams.
South to Florida; west to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian
territory, Louisiana, Texas, southern California, and south into
Mexico.
=Habit.=--A large shrub or small tree, 25-40 feet high and 10-15 inches
in trunk diameter, attaining great size in the Ohio and Mississippi
valleys and the valley of the lower Colorado; trunk short, surmounted by
an irregular, open, often roundish head, with stout, spreading branches,
slender branchlets, and twigs brittle towards their base.
_S. nigra_, var. _falcata_, Pursh., covers about the same range as the
type and differs chiefly in its narrower, falcate leaves.
=Bark.=--Trunk rough, in young trees light brown, in old trees
dark-colored or nearly black, deeply and irregularly ridged, separated
on the surface into thick, plate-like scales; branchlets reddish-brown;
twigs bronze olive.