136 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. iv 



shensi: northwest of Han cheng hsien, rare in district, W. Purdom 

 no. 377, 1910. 



Kansu: Chu kun, planted along roadsides, F. N. Meyer, no. 1801, 

 October 18, 1914; Tsing chow, Wu shih li pu, alt. 1500 m., J. Hers, no. 2410* 

 July 4, 1922; Fu kiang hsien, alt. 1400 in., J. Hers, no. 2422, August 21, 

 1922; Anting hsien, Tsang ko chen, alt. 2100 m., J. Hers, no. 2426, August 

 26, 1922. 6 



Meyer's no. 1801 from Kansu which is from a planted tree agrees with 

 typical P. tomentosa from near Peking, while Hers' specimens from eastern 

 Kansu all have smaller leaves and no. 2422 which consists of a young shoot 

 has deeply lobed leaves white-tomentose beneath and looks much like 

 P. alba as does Purdom's no. 377 from Shensi, but they have the glabrous 

 or glabrescent winter-buds of P. tomentosa. 



Possibly P. tomentosa is only an extreme form of P. alba L. 



Populus laurifolia Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 297 (1833).— Schneider in 

 Sargent, PI. Wilson, in. 35 (1916). 



P °wn U n tc? mi £ ra ^ r : la ? rifolia Wesma el in De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. n. 



6S0 (1868) —Burkill in Jour. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 535 (1899), ? in part. 

 Populus ftp. Hers in Jour. N. China Branch R. As. Soc. liii 113 (192?) 



common 



Cowdry, no. 2155, November, 1920.— See also Burkill, 1. c. 

 ^ Honan: Lu shih, Fan lin, alt. 600 m., J. Hers, no. 1100, October 15, 1919; 

 Yung ning, Chung yang, J. Hers, no. 1128, October 18, 1919.— See also 

 Hers, 1. c. 



Distribution: also Siberia. 



Not without hesitation I refer to P. laurifolia Cowdry 's specimen from 

 Chili and Hers' specimens from Honan. They consist of vigorous, strongly 

 angled shoots with large ovate or elliptic-ovate to nearly oblong-ovate 

 leaves 10-20 cm. long, distinctly broadest below the middle and rounded 

 at base and borne on rather slender petioles 2-5 cm. long. Mr. Hers 



describes his no. 1100 as a tall tree with white and smooth bark, its wood 

 superior to that of P. suaveolens, but inferior to that of P. tomentosa and 

 the leaves as not edible, and of no. 1128 he says that it is called by the 

 Chinese ku yang (= bitter poplar), because the leaves, though resembling 

 those of P. suaveolens, are not edible. 



Populus laurifolia differs from P. suaveolens Fisch. chiefly in the strongly 

 angled shoots of light grayish brown or yellowish brown eolor and from P. 

 Simonii Carr. in the larger leaves distinctly broadest below the middle 

 and rounded or even slightly subcordate at the base and in the longer 

 petioles. Schneider refers the specimens cited by Burkill under P. bal- 

 samifera var. laurifolia to P. Simonii, probably under the assumption that 

 P. laurifolia does not occur in northern China and he may be right, but 

 more complete material is needed to determine accurately the distribu- 

 tion of the Poplars of northeastern and eastern Asia. 



