RETORT ON THE MANAGEMENT AND VALUE OF POPLAR. 121 



to large-sized trees than those grown from seed, or even from 

 cuttings. The process of laying is best done in March, and the 

 young shoots should be separated from the parent stock after 

 remaining one year attached. They are then transplanted into 

 rows in the nursery ground, where they remain at pleasure, 

 sometimes one year, sometimes two or three. This is a tree of 

 rapid growth in a moist situation, and in a rich soil it attains a 

 large size, often exceeding 100 feet in height, and containing an 

 equal number of cubic feet. It changes its character very much 

 at various stages of growth. Its young shoots and small branches 

 have a purplish bark, and the leaves of the young plants are 

 covered with a thick coating of white down underneath. In 

 proportion as the tree grows older the down becomes less and less 

 apparent. It is an object of general admiration, its majestic 

 appearance attracting the attention of the beholder. Its branches, 

 though not large, are bold, sweeping, and regular. Its leaves, 

 when young, are large, resembling those of the herb coltsfoot, and 

 yield an agreeable scent. No species of the poplar family changes 

 its form and foliage so greatly as the Populus alba as regards the 

 size and shape of its leaf, which often causes it to be mistaken 

 for another species. It has a great tendency to produce suckers, 

 which spring up, not like those of other trees near the trunk, but 

 at every place where the roots extend, to the very extremity of 

 the fibres. The timber is superior in quality to that of the aspen, 

 and is also less liable to ground-rot and the attacks of the white 

 grub previously mentioned. As paling or weather-boarding it 

 lasts as long as spruce, while for flooring it is equal to Scotch 

 pine, and is eagerly sought after for break-blocks and staves for 

 barrels. 



Third, The Gray Poplar {Populus canesccns), like the aspen and 

 white poplars, grows in many parts of Great Britain. It generally 

 springs up on the margins of wet but good ground. The writer 

 has often seen it growing in a natural state upon banks over- 

 hanging boggy ground. It attains a size equal to that of the 

 white poplar, when they are grown together upon good soil, and 

 surpasses it in growth upon poor ground. The gray very much 

 resembles the white poplar, and a common observer is very apt 

 to mistake the one for the other. The stigmas in the former are 

 eight in number, in the latter only four. The leaves in the white 

 poplar are also more round and less cut and lobed than those of 

 the gray. This is a very hardy tree, and grows well even on 

 indifferent soil. Unlike the other species, it is little liable to 

 produce suckers, and seldom attains a \ery great size. 



Fourth, The Black Poplar {Populus nigra) grows wild in many 

 districts of Scotland, as well as in most parts of Europe and north 

 of Africa, and may, therefore, be properly regarded as indigenous 

 to this country. Its natural habitat seems to be a moist situa- 



