THE CAROLINA POPLAR 201 



on account, of the more erect growth of the branches. Left to them- 

 selves, the branches of the crown tend to grow upward somewhat as in 

 the Lombardy Poplar, but by no means to such an extreme. Even when 

 the top has been pruned back by having the terminal branches much. 

 shortened, it soon resumes its narrowed and somewhat compressed shape. 

 This erect tendency of the branches and compact form of the crown in 

 this tree, is in marked contrast to the common western sottonwood in 

 which the branches are much more divergent, resulting in a markedly 

 spreading crown. 



Bnds. — ]\Iuch less gummy than in the common western cottonwood, 

 but otherwise resembling them. 



Trunk. — Darker colored (brownish) than in the common western 

 cottonwood, in which the trunk is grayish. 



Floivers. — Only the staminate ("male") flowers occur on the trees 

 under observation. These are in elongated cylindrical clusters (catkins), 

 which are compact at first, but eventually they elongate and become 

 slender and drooping. When they first appear, they are purplish-red in 

 color, but as they grow older, they fade into a dirty gray. 



Rapidity of (Jrowtli. — Under cultivation, Caroline Poplar trees make 

 a strong and vigorous growth, the shoots of a season often attaining a 

 length of six to ten feet. Such shoots are nearly half an inch in thickness 

 a little distance from the terminal bud, and are always very distinctly 

 angled. This rapid growth of the young trees appears to be normal for 

 the Carolina Poplar, since it occurs in all healthy trees. The same 

 rapid growth, with consequent increase of size, and marked development 

 of angles on the twigs, takes place in the common western cottonwood 

 when sprouts spring up from the stump after the cutting of the tree, and 

 it may well be that this similarity of the abnormal shoot of the 

 one tree to the normal shoot of the other has contributed to the confusion 

 as to their specific identity. 



The Name "Carolina Poplar." 



It is the opinion of some persons who have become interested in 

 the question of the value of this tree that the name "Carolina Poplar" 

 is of recent introduction, one correspondent going so far as to say that 

 its use probably did not exceed twenty years, and that "the name has been 

 given in order to defraud the people, by causing them to think they were 

 getting something different from the cottonwood." 



The earliest use of the name "Carolina Poplar" was by an English 

 botanist, Alton, in the first edition of the "Hortus Kewensis," published 

 in 1789 under his original description of Populus ang:ulata. In the second 

 edition of this work, published in 1813, the description of Populus 

 ang'ulata is considerably improved, while the name Carolina Poplar is re- 

 tained. 



The name Carolina Poplar was used by Michaux, a French botanist 



