FOREST TREES. 207 



leaves are also used in dyeing black. The catkins of the Alder are 

 formed in Summer ; the leaf buds may be seen as soon as the old 

 leaves fall. The fertile catkins when fully grown have a pretty cone-like 

 form. 



Early in the Spring, often in the beginning of April, before any 

 other tree or plant has shown a sign of awakening from the long 

 winter's sleep, gradually the pollen-bearing catkins begin to lengthen, 

 until graceful yellow tassels, of two or three inches in length, hang 

 from every slender twig. On account of its early appearance this glad 

 harbinger of Spring is a welcome sight to all. Closely following in its 

 wake come the flowers of the Silver Maple, and then the lovely Trailing 

 Arbutus follows with many others of our sweet Spring flowers. The 

 leaves of the Alder are broadly ovate, rounded at the base, coarsely 

 toothed and downy underneath. 



Poplars. 



The Poplars and Willows are among our most common native trees 

 and shrubs. We have a great variety of species of both, from the lofty 

 Cottonwood of the Western peninsula on the shores of Lakes Michigan 

 and Huron, to the dwarf Willows that form the chief portion of the 

 vegetation of the far Northern boundaries of Hudson's Bay. 



Little valued as timber in the thickly wooded lands of Eastern and 

 Western Canada, where hardwood trees abounds, such as the Walnut, 

 Maple, Beech, and others, yet in the more distant divisions of the 

 Dominion, where timber trees are less abundant and in the prairie 

 bottoms where the Poplar and Birch form the only trees, the Poplar 

 rises in value and is used not only for firewood, but for building 

 purposes where better timber is not easily obtained, unless at a very 

 great cost. In remote places far from the means of transport, and 

 where, for the present, saw-mills are not in existence, the Poplar 

 supplies the place of a more durable wood. The Romans called the 

 Poplar "the Tree of the People," and it was used to decorate the public 

 walks. 



The Cottonwood- -Necklace Poplar — Populns iiionilifera, (Ait.) 



Is the finest of all the Poplar faniily. It is a noble-growing forest tree, 

 confined in Canada, chiefly to the more Westerly portion of the 

 Dominion. Between the Cireat Lakes, seems to be its particular locality. 

 It loves the margin of lakes and rivers, and moist ground, indicating a 

 rich vegetable soil, well repaying the cost of clearing the land of the- 

 trees, which are of great height and girth; though the wood is very light 



