SALICACE. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
155 
Huphratica. The bark of Populus contains tannic acid, and that of several of the species is employed 
in Europe in tanning leather ;? in the United States Populus bark, in which populin,’ a crystalline 
principle, occurs, is occasionally used as a tonic‘ and in homeopathic practice.” The fragrant balsam 
in the buds of several species, which is readily separated by boiling, is occasionally used medicinally 
as a tincture for its reputed tonic and stimulant properties,’ and by distillation yields a colorless oil of 
pleasant odor.’ 
Numerous insects® prey upon Populus and several of the species suffer seriously from attacks of 
Populus australis, Tenore, Syll. Fl. Neap. 482 (1831) ; Fl. Nap. 
v. 278. — Gussone, Enum. Pl. Ins. Inar. 310. 
Populus Sieboldi, Miquel, Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. iii. 29 (Prol. 
Fil. Jap.) in part (teste Maximowicz, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. liv. 
pt. i. 49) (1867). 
Populus tremula, the Aspen or Trembling Poplar, is a tree sixty 
or seventy feet in height, with vigorous stoloniferous roots, smooth 
bark, slender branches, and small glabrous or pubescent nearly orbi- 
cular leaves which are borne on long slender petioles and flutter with 
the slightest breath of air. 
usually in humid soil, and is more common at the north, where it is 
It inhabits plains and mountain sides, 
generally gregarious, than at the south ; it is found from the Arctic 
Circle to northern Africa, and from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean 
to Asia Minor, and through Siberia, where it often covers large 
areas, to Kamtschatka, northern China, northern Japan, where it is 
common on gravelly plains and usually of small size, and the 
Kurile Islands, the variety villosa, Wesmael (De Candolle Prodr. 
xvi. pt. ii. 325 [1868] ; Mém. Soc. Sci. Hainaut, sér. iii. 321. Popu- 
lus villosa, Lang, Reichenbach Fl. German. Excurs. 173 [1832]), 
being the common form of western Asia. 
In Europe the wood of Populus tremula is used in the manufac- 
ture of matches and paper ; the bark is employed in tanning leather, 
and the young shoots and leaves are fed to cattle and goats (Lou- 
don, Ard. Brit. iii. 1645, f. 1509. — Mathieu, Fl. Forestiere, ed. 3, 
422). 
In gardens a form of the Aspen with long pendulous branches is 
often cultivated (Populus tremula pendula, Loudon, J. v. 1646 
[1838].— Wesmael, De Candolle Prodr. l.c; Mém. Soc. Sci. Hai- 
naut, l.c.—Dippel, Handb. Laubholzk. ii. 197. Populus pendula, 
Burgsdorf, Anleit. Anpfl. pt. 11. 175 [1787]). 
1 Olivier, Voyage, iii. 449; Atlas, t. 45, 46 (1807). — Regel, 
Act. Hort. Petrop. vi. 473. — Krémer, Descrip. Populus Euphratica, 
t. 1-3. — Trautvetter, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xl. pt. ii. 91 (Enum. 
Pl. Songor.); Act. Hort. Petrop. i. 281 (Pl. Turcom.) ; 1. 589 (Pl. 
Radd.) ; ix. 190 (Incremente Fl. Ross.).— Wesmael, De Candolle 
Prodr. |. c. 326; Mém. Soc. Sci. Hainaut, 1. c. 234, t. 10-13. — 
Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 1194. — Franchet, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 6, 
xvili, 253 (Pl. Turkestan).— Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 638.— 
Lace & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 309 (Sk. Veg. Brit. Balu- 
chistan). 
Populus biformis, Rafinesque, Alsograph. Am. 43 (1838). 
Populus diversifolia, Schrenk, Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, 
x. 253 (1842). — Fischer & Meyer, Enum. Alt. Pl. Nov. Schrenk, 
15. — Ledebour, F?. Ross. iii. 627. 
Populus Euphratensis, Gard. Chron. 1849, 806. 
Populus Euphratica, which is believed to be the Garab-tree of the 
Arabs, the Weeping Willow of the Psalmist upon which the Jews 
hung their harps (see Ascherson, Adansonia, x. 348), is a large tree 
remarkable for the variability of the shape of its leaves, which on 
seedlings, young trees, and vigorous shoots are linear, and on older 
branches broad and ovate, rhomboid or cordate ; it inhabits the 
banks of streams, where it is often gregarious, from the province 
of Oran in Algeria westward through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and 
northern Persia, to northwestern India, western Thibet, where it 
ascends to elevations of thirteen thousand five hundred feet above 
the level of the ocean, Turkestan, and southern Siberia. 
In India the wood is used in turnery, in Sindh being made into 
boxes and lacquer-ware ; on the Euphrates it is said to be employed 
in boat-building, and in Sindh and Thibet it serves as fuel; the 
bark is employed as a febrifuge, and the twigs are used as tooth- 
sticks by the Hindus ; the coppice shoots, which are produced for 
a long time with great vigor, are sometimes used for rafters. The 
leaves furnish forage for goats and cattle. (See Brandis, Forest 
Fl. Brit. Ind. 474.—Gamble, Man. Indian Timbers, 378.— Bal- 
four, Cyclopedia of India, ed. 3, iii. 262.) It is this tree and the 
Date Palm which are believed to have furnished the rafters for the 
buildings of Nineveh ; and it is still used for rafters in Kurdistan, 
the trunks being floated down the Khabour and Tigris. (See 
Layard, Nineveh and its Remains ii. 259.) 
2 Wehrs, Ueber Eichenlohsurrogate, 66.— Neubrand, Die Gerb- 
rinde, 220. — Héhnel, Die Gerberinden, 20. 
8 Braconnot, Ann. Chim. et Phys. xliv. 296. 
4 A. Richard, Hist. Mat. Med. ed. 3, iii. 187. — Johnson, Man. 
Med. Bot. N. Am. 254. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1897. 
5 Millspaugh, Am. Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Remedies, ii. 162. 
6 The buds of several of the species have been employed in the 
treatment of pectoral, nephritic, and rheumatic complaints, and 
those of Populus nigra were one of the ingredients of the Unguen- 
tum populeum, an anodyne ointment of the old European pharmaco- 
peias. 
7 Spons, Encyclopedia of the Industrial Arts, Manufactures, and 
Raw Commercial Products, ii. 1427. 
8 In the Fifth Report of the United States Entomological Com- 
mission, published in 1890, Packard enumerates one hundred and 
eight species of insects found living upon Populus in North Amer- 
ica, and further study will no doubt greatly increase this number. 
Many of the species which feed upon Salix are also found upon 
Populus, although as compared with Salix the trunks and branches 
seem much more liable to serious damage by borers, several species 
of wood destroyers being known on the Poplars. Among Coleop- 
terous borers, Saperda calcarata, Say, is one of the most destruc- 
tive, its large white fleshy larve sometimes completely riddling 
the trunks with their burrows and causing the death of the tree. 
Both indigenous and exotic Poplars are attacked by them, and 
other species of Saperda affect the trunk and limbs. The larve of 
Prionus laticollis, Drury, a common large black beetle, are often 
abundant in the roots and lower parts of the trunks, and Plectrodera 
scalator, Fabricius, is also said to bore into the roots. Species of 
Oberea are found in the twigs, and Jecas inornata, Say, by boring 
into small trunks and branches, causes them to become much swol- 
len. The imported Willow borer, Cryptorhynchus Lapathi, Linneus, 
has been found on Populus in America, and may become trouble- 
some. 
In some localities Lepidopterous borers have been found to infest 
