256 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



This tree seldom surpasses the height of 30 or 40 feet and a 

 diameter of 12 or 15 inches. The bark of the young branches 

 is of a grayish white, and the buds, which spring from the bosom 

 of the leaves, are of a dark brown. One of the distinctive 

 characters of this species is the hairiness of the young shoots and 

 of the petioles in the spring, which is perceptible, also, on the 

 back of the young leaves. The leaves are smooth, of a beautiful 

 green color, denticulated, rounded in the middle, and acutely 

 tapering towards the summit. When fully developed they are a 

 little more than three inches long, about two inches broad, and, 

 unlike the leaves of trees in general, they exhibit nearly the same 

 shape from the moment of their unfolding. The aments are four 

 or five inches long and destitute of the hairs which surround 

 those of several other species. 



The wood of the American black poplar is inferior to that of 

 the Virginian and Lombardy poplars and consequently of little use. 



Virginian Poplar. Populus monilifera. 



This poplar is indigenous to North America, though very rare, 

 and is called Virginian Poplar and Swiss Poplar ; the last of 

 which denominations is owing only to its being abundantly 

 multiplied in Switzerland. 



This tree is 60 or 70 feet high with a proportional diameter. 

 Its trunk is cylindrical, and not sulcated like that of the Lombardy 

 poplar, and the bark upon old stocks is blackish. The leaves 

 are nearly as long as they are broad, slightly heart-shaped, 

 compressed towards the summit, obtusely denticulated and borne 

 by long petioles. On large trees their mean length is from two 

 and a half to three inches, but they vary in size, being twice as 

 large on the lower limbs, and on young stocks growing in moist 

 places. On trees equally vigorous and nourished by the same 

 soil, the leaves of this species are observed to be only half as 

 large as those of the cotton wood and Carolinian poplar. This 

 tree has been and is still confounded with the cotton wood ; but 

 the principal difference between them is that the leaves of the 



