. 
CHAP. CHII. SALICA‘CEA. PO’/PULUS. 1659 
Properties and Uses, Soil, Propagation, §c. The wood may be applied to 
the same purposes as that of the species previously described; but, being of 
larger dimensions, it may be considered as better fitted for being used in build- 
ings. Pontey observes that the tree is not only an astonishingly quick grower, 
but that its stem is remarkably straight ; and that, with very trifling attention 
to side pruning, it may be kept clear of branches to any required height. For 
these reasons, he considers it the most profitable of all trees to plant in masses 
in a fertile soil, rather moist. Sir J. E. Smith describes the tree as very 
hardy in Britain, and valuable for planting in exposed situations, or on poor 
sandy soil; but he adds that the temale tree is objectionable, the down of 
the seeds being a great nuisance, particularly near houses; as it sticks to 
clothes and furniture in a most troublesome manner. Hence, the male 
trees should be selected, not only for planting near a house, but wherever 
ornament is the main object; as the flowers, which are of a deep red, and 
produced in great abundance, are as ornamental as those of P. nigra; while 
the female flowers of both species are comparatively inconspicuous, and the 
seeds alike cottony and troublesome. Were every cottager to grow his own 
fuel, there is, perhaps, no tree that would succeed so well for that purpose, 
on a small spot of ground, as P. monilifera. (See Gard. Mag., vol. vi. 
p- 146.) Cuttings of the black Italian poplar root more freely than those 
of the Canadian poplar; and this, indeed, constitutes, in our opinion, one 
of the most important differences between the two trees. The caterpillars 
of one of the bombycideous moths, belonging to the genus Cerura, and re- 
garded (correctly?) by Sir J. E. Smith as identical with the English C. 
farcula, the kitten moth, (Abb. and Smith, Ins. of Georgia, t.71., and our 
Jig. 1518.) feed on this poplar, both in America and Europe. The cater- 
pillar (a), which is green and brown, when disturbed, shoots out of the end of 
Its forked tail two soft orange-coloured threads. Early in August, having 
become much larger (4), it sheds its skin, and turns. green striped with white. 
In a few days, it encloses itself in a case made of chips of the wood (ce), 
which it attaches to a branch, and which looks somewhat like a slug, out of 
which the moth (d) makes its escape at one end. 
Statistics. Recorded Trees. Mr. Pontey, in 1813, measured a tree growing in the garden of Mr. 
Richard Atkinson of Huddersfield, which had been then planted 25 years, and found it 60 ft. high, 
and containing 46 cubic feet of good timber. The soil was light, and only about 1 ft. deep, on a 
subsoil of coarse gravel. Mr. Pontey also measured another tree at Hudderstield, planted by himself 
in very wet soil, 19 years before, which was 64 ft. high, and contained 3 ft. of timber. (Forest Pru- 
edit., p. 219.) Bosc, in 1822, mentions a superb avenue of these trees in the Jardin des 
Plantes ; but they have since been cut down. : 
E. Trees. In England, at Syon, it is 102 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 4+ft. 5in., and of the 
head 95 ft. ; at Ham House, Essex, it is 100 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 8in., and of the head 
68 ft.; at York House, Twickenham, 60 ne old, it is 80 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 18 in., and 
of the head 40 ft.; in Devonshire, at Bystock Park, 12 years planted, it is 40 ft. high; in Dorset- 
shire, at Melbury Park, 23 years planted, it is 66 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 7 in., and of the 
head 96 ft.; in Hampshire, at Strathfieldsaye, it is 108 ft. high, with a trunk 5ft in diameter; in 
ire, at Nettlecombe, 13 years planted, it is 54 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft. 
7in., and of the head 21 ft. ; in bse f at Bagshot Park, 22 run old, it is 35 ft. high, in Cheshire, 
at Eaton Hall, 17 years planted, it is 50 ft. high ; in Denbighshire, at Llanbede Hall, 20 years planted, 
it is 55 ft. high; in Lancashire, at Latham House, 28 years planted, it is 77 ft. high, the diameter 
