STATE GEOLOGIST. 131 



counties and far northward, where it occurs sparingly, and southwestward, wliere it 

 is absent. 



P, mouilifera. Ait. (Including P. angulata, Ait.) Cottonwood. Neck- 

 lace Poplar. 

 Common, or frequent, through tlie south half of the state; rare farther north; 

 reaching its northern limit in southeastern Pine county, the region of the upper Missis- 

 sippi, Houghton, White Earth reservation. Garrison, and Ked Lake Falls and the Red 

 river valley, Upham. " Large trees occur along the Assiniboine river," Bell. " Exten- 

 sively planted for shelter and fuel. The cotton from the seeds proves a source of mucli 

 annoyance to the tidy housewife. If only male trees, those with reddish tassels, were 

 planted, no cotton would be produced. Both kinds of tassels, the green and the red, 

 appear in spring before tne leaves come out." Arthur. 



P. balsaniifera, L. Balsam Poplar. Tacamahac. 



Common, or frequent, through the north half of the state ; extending southwest to 

 Cannon river (rare), Sandberg, Osakis lake, Upham, and Fergus Falls, Leonard. 



P. balsaniifera, L., var. caudicans, Gray. Balm of Gilead. 



Frequent northeastward ; extending southwest to southeastern Pine county, Little 

 Falls, and White Earth reservation. 



P. dilatata, Ait. Lombardy Poplar. 



Spontaneous, ManKato, Leihcrg. [Stiff spiry tree, with closely appressed branches, 

 and small broadly triangular pointed leaves ; formerly much planted. Gray's Field, 

 Forest, and Garden Botany.] 



P.albttjL. White Poplar. Silver-leaf Poplar. Abele. Abel-tree. 



Cultivated, and thence sometimes spreading spontaneously, in Martin county, 

 Cratty. [Tree planted from Europe, with spreading branches, roundish, slightly heart- 

 shaped wavy-toothed or lobed leaves soon green above, very white cottony beneath ; 

 buds not glutinous : spreads inveterately by the root. Gray's Field, Forest, and Gar- 

 den Botany.] 



CONIFERS. Pine Family. 



PINUS, Tourn., Link. Pine. 



P. Banksiana, Lambert. "Jack Pine." Gray or Northern Scrub Pine. 



Banks' or Banksian Pine. Black Pine. 

 Common northeastward ; abundant on sandy land In the region of the upper Missis- 

 sippi and Cro.w Wing rivers, from Brainerd and Wadena northward ; having its south- 

 west limit at the St. Croix and Snake rivers, Princeton, Brockway (Stearns county), 

 Stowe and Oak Valley (ten miles south of Wadena), in the White Earth reservation, and 

 at the lake of the Woods and on Roseau river. This species, almost alone, but with red 

 pines here and there sparingly intermixed, forms thick woods at many places in Cass, 

 Wadena and Crow Wing counties, as. for example, at Brainerd, growing very stiaight 

 and slender, 40 to 60 feet in hight, but seldom exceeding a foot in diameter. Its coarse, 

 resinous wood is excellent fuel, but it is not adapted to building purposes. Many rail- 

 road ties are made from this and the next species of pine, but are inferior in value and 

 durability to those of bur oak, which are more used in this way. Often Ave ties, each 

 eight feet long, are obtained from a single Jack pine. Rarely this tree attains a hight 

 of eighty feet, one of this size being found by Professor Winchcll on Brule mountain' 

 north of lake Superior. [This tree grows sixty to seventy feet high in northern Michi- 

 gan ( Wheeler and Smith's Catalogue, and Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, x, 82) ; 

 and i5r. BelJ records it as about seventy feet in hight and two feet in diameter, in large 

 groves, on the southern branches of the Albany rlver.J 



P. resiiiosa, Ait. "Norway Pine." Red Pine. 



Common or frequent nortliward, growing in groves, or scattered, on somewhat 

 sandy land ; not extending, in general, quite so far southwest as the preceding. Usually 



