BLACK POPLAR 213 



flowers and fruit. Foliage very light and feathery, bright 

 green and late. Twigs olive to shining red-brown. 



Very few other trees present similarly spreading crowns 

 and tortuous or zig-zag limbs and main branches. The 

 Plane (Platanus) is at once recognised by its bark cast in 

 large patches (see p. 175): the Walnut (Juglans) by its 

 ashen- or greenish-grey bark, and thick twigs with 

 chambered pith. 



# Limbs and branches widely extended, 

 but not conspicuously tortuous nor 

 zig-zag, nor as a rule coming off at 

 very wide angles. 



-f- Spray alternate, spiral or dis- [For(-j--f-) 

 tichous, and showing no tendency see P- 216 -l 

 to dichotomy. 



8 Ends of the branches ascending, 

 and with numerous more or less 

 erect spirally inserted twigs, 

 forming besom-like aggregates. 

 Buds pointed and viscid. Leaves 

 broad, cordate. Flowers in 

 pendent catkins. Fruits cap- 

 sular; seeds minute, comose. 



Populus nigra, L. Black Poplar (Fig. 107). Large tree 

 up to 60 70 feet in height, with a thick trunk, and abun- 

 dant deeply and long-fissured blackish bark, rather like that 

 of Oaks. Crown ovoid-conical to spreading dome-shaped. 

 Twigs, especially those of the suckers, more or less tri- 

 angular in section, with viscid pointed buds ; yellow, 

 polished, passing to greyish, with large lenticels. Branches 

 brown-slaty.' Limbs few, ascending, and but sparsely 

 branched except towards the tips; on the branches the 

 twigs ascend in besom-like tufts, hence the crown is loose, 

 though the broad leaves give considerable shade in the 

 mass. 



