1674 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



I'AUT III. 



slender twiggy branches, and leaves nearly lanceolate. There are 

 plants in Messrs. Loddiges'.s arboretuin. 

 1 P. 6. 3 Uilifolia Hort, has the leaves rather broader than those of the 

 species. There is a tree of this kind, in the London Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, l:ift. hiiih. 

 t P. 6. 4 intcrmcd'ui Hort., Pall.FI. Ross., t. + l. A,is a native of Dahuria, 

 with stout, siiort, thick branches, knotted with wrinkles; and ovate, 

 long, and rather narrow leaves ; and generally attaining only the 

 height of a large shrub. Tlitre is a plant, in the London Horticul- 

 tural Society's Garden, I (J ft. high, by which it apiJears to be quite 

 distinct from P. b. viminalis. 

 i P. b. o suai'co/ciis ; P. suaveolens 7^»c7/(T, and LoJd. 6'a/.,ed. 1630. The 

 new sweet-scented poplar of the nurseries. — The plant in Messrs. 

 Loddigcs's collection is not 1 ft. high ; and we have not been able to 

 identify it in any other collections ; though it must have been plen- 

 tiful in 1834, since in the wholesale priced Ca/rt/og«c of the Ken- 

 sington Nursery for that year the price of plants is stated to be 

 10s. per hundred. 

 * P. b. G Jo/iis rciriegali.1 Miller has varie- 

 gated leaves. There is a tree of this 

 kind in the London Ilorticultiu-al So- 

 ciety's Garden. 

 Description. The balsam poplar, in North 



America, according to Michaux, attains the 



height of 80 ft., with a trunk 3 ft. in diameter, 



and roots spreading close under the surface, and 



throwing up numerous suckers. In Siberia, ac- 

 cording to Pallas, it is only a middle-sized tree ; 



and in Dahuria and Altai, a low tree, or large 



shrub. According to Franklin, in the northern 



parts of North America, the trunk of the balsam 



poplar attains a greater circumference than that 



of any other tree. The head of the tree, in 



North America, is conical ; but in Russia it is 



roundish. The trunk is covered with an fish-V^^^^^j^i^ \^^ -\^\j 



coloured bark ; and the wood, in Siberia, is said "" '*' 



to be reddish, being closer and a little harder 



than that of other poplars. In the moist plains of Dahuria, the tree is 



shrubby, because, according to Pallas, the grass is annually fired there; and 



the young shoots of all the trees being thus 



injured, they are seldom found rising with a clear 



stem. In the spring, the balsam poplar is known 



from all other species by the fine tender yellow 



of its leaves when they are first developed ; the 



abundance of the yellow glutinous balsam with 



which the buds are covered, the very strong 



odour which this balsam diffuses throughout the 



surrounding atmosphere, and the comparatively 



rigid and fastigiate habit of growth of the tree, 



which approaches, in the latter respect, nearer to 



P. fastigiata than any other species. When 



mature, the leaves become of a deep green colour 



above, and of a rusty silvery white beneath. 



This is one of the hardiest of poplars, though not 



of rapid growth ; except the first three or four 



years in the nursery. Bosc observes that bota- 

 nists often confound this species with /'. can- 



dicans ; but that cultivators never do so, from 



the verv diHcrciit manner of its growth, and from 



1.53(J -^ ^^ 



