The Great American Aspen is a remarkable tree. In height it is
unsurpassed by any of the poplars, though there is little about it that
is attractive except its great height and its peculiar foliage. It is
seldom of large dimensions, and it is without symmetry or elegance in
its ramification. Its branches seem to have a straggling growth, not
extending so widely, nor at so acute an angle, as those of the poplar.
Its foliage is its principal ornament. This would be very dense if it
were not for the scarcity of small branches, which are so far apart as
to give the tree a meagre appearance, even when full of leaves. The leaf
is beautiful, being round ovate, deeply serrate, and put in motion by
the slightest breeze. As a standard the Great Aspen is not highly
prized. It is easily broken by the wind, and is without symmetry,—a
necessary quality in a tree of the poplar tribe, which possesses none of
the properties of grandeur. But when the trees of this species form a
dense wood, they are unsurpassed in the beauty of their perfectly
straight shafts, with their smooth, greenish bark extending upward to an
immense height without a branch. The Great Aspen is very common in the
woods of Maine and New Hampshire, where the second growth of timber
predominates.
The specific name of this tree, _grandidentata_, always affected me
ludicrously, when I considered that it was applied to it merely from the
deep indentations on the edge of its serrate leaves. _Excelsa_ would be
a more appropriate name for the species, on account of its superior
height.