THE CAROLINA POPLAR. 247 



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 cottonwood in which the 

 branches are much more divergent, resulting in a markedly spreadihg 

 crown. 



Buds. — Much less gummy than in the common cottonwood, but other- 

 wise resembling them. 



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

 iti which the trunk is grayish. 



Flowers. — 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 Growth. — Under cultivation, Carolina 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 thick- 

 ness a little distance from the terminal bud, and are always very dis- 

 tinctly 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 conseqent increase of size, and marked de- 

 velopment of angles on the twigs, takes place in the common 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 con- 

 fusion as to their specific identity. 



VALUE FOR SHADE. 



The Carolina Poplar, being a rapidly growing tree, with a tenacious 

 life, which renders it very easy to handle and transplant, is especially 

 well fitted to supply the needs of the man who wants a pretty shade 

 tree in a short time. In a couple of years a few Carolina Poplars will 

 cast a considerable shade on the ground immediately around the house, 

 and make far more tolerable the heat of the midsummer sun. Of course 

 it is not as pretty and graceful a tree as the American Elm, but it is 

 often diflicult to make the elm grow at once in the raw prairie ground, 

 and it is a cruelty to the wife and children who live in shadeless houses 

 to compel them to wait until the elms may be grown. Any tree that will 

 live and grow rapidly is a boon to those who live upon the prairies and 

 plains. It matters little to the plainsman that his shade trees are not 

 as fine looking as American elms. They have quickly given him and 

 his family some patches of shade to cut off the hot glare of the sun. 

 This is the all-sufficient excuse for their planting. Better by far a Car- 

 olina Poplar today, which gives a grateful shade from the hot sun, than 

 the most beautiful elm, which may or may not succeed in growing a 



