CHAP. cm. 



JALICA^CE^. PO'PULUS. 



1659 



Properties and Uses, Soil, Propagation, Sfc. 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 female 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. 

 furcula, the kitten moth, (^Abh. 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 (b), 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 (c), 

 which it attaches to a branch, and which looks somewhat like a slug, out of 

 which the moth (rf) 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 pJanted 25 years, and found it 60 ft. high, 

 and containing 46 cubic feet of good timber. The soil was hgnt, and only about 1 ft. deep, on a 

 subsoil of coarse gravel. Mr. Pontey also measured another tree at Huddersfield, planted by himself 

 in very wtt soil, 19 years before, which was 64 ft. high, and contained 34 ft. of timber. {Forest Pru. 

 ncr, 4th 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. 



Ej'isting Trees. In England, at Syon, it is 102 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 4 ft. 5 in., and of the 

 head 95 ft ; at Ham House, Essex, it is 100 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 3 ft. 8 in., and of the head 

 68 ft; at York House, Twickenham, 60 years 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 26 ft. ; in Hampshire, at Strathfieldsaye, it is 108 ft. high, with a trunk 5 ft. in diameter; in 

 Somersetshire, at Nettlecombe, 13 years planted, it is 54 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft. 

 7 in., and of the head 21 ft. ; in Surrey, at Bagshot Park, 22 years old, it is 35 ft. high , in Cheshire, 

 at B^ton Hall, 17 years planted, it is SO 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 



