278 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



spring the catkins lengthen, and when abundant, give the tree al- 

 most as much solidity as foliage. They blossom out and disappear 

 before the leaves are put out. The fruit on the pistillate trees 

 ripens shortly afterward. 



242. COTTONWOOD; NECKLACE POPLAR 



POPULUS DELTOIDES Marsh. 



Common, but not abundant in the neighborhood of the lake. 

 There were a few rather small trees at Long Point, some on 

 the shore east of the depot and some in Overmyer's flat woods. 

 There is a large tree near the shore by Edwards' cottage on the 

 east side of the lake. 



One of the most rapidly growing of our trees, reaching a large 

 size in a few years, and in time reaching a size hardly equalled by 

 any other of our native trees. The soft light wood is not of great 

 value. The plants grow well from cuttings and are occasionally 

 planted for shade trees. In dry uplands the tree is one of the first 

 to shed its leaves in autumn, these sometimes gradually turning 

 yellow and falling, one by one, beginning in August. In moist 

 situations the leaves remain green rather late. The leaves are 

 much subject to gall-formation. Deciduous branchlets, which are 

 readily shed during the winter, leaving oval concavities, are com- 

 mon. The pistillate trees are often nuisances from the great 

 amount of cottony seed they shed in early spring. 



In spite of all its faults, the cottonwood is the most vocal and 

 companionable of trees. No wonder that it was extensively used 

 in yards as a shade tree. Not a whole forest of common trees could 

 be more in evidence, and every little restless movement of the air 

 all night long becomes transformed into a sound. There were 

 whisperings and flutterings, sudden stirs as if every leaf awoke 

 at once, whispered sighs, sounds like the gentle clapping of hands, 

 and a pattering like the sound of rain upon the roof. One looked 

 out in the morning surprised to find the world dry. And all of the 

 sounds were of a cheerful domestic sort, not the howling and wail- 

 ing like that of the pines which suggest the "howling wilderness" 

 but the gentler sound of summer woods. 



243. BLACK OR SWAMP WILLOW 



SALIX NIGRA Marsh. 



A tree that appeared to be this species was quite common along 

 marshy edges of the lake shore. It is the largest willow of the 

 region, the trees attaining a height of 20 or 30 feet and a diameter 



