88 Trees with Simple Leaves. [An 



A tree forty to eighty feet high, with open, crooked 

 branches. Large quantities of the soft, white wood are 

 ground into pulp for making paper. "In both this and 

 the preceding species, the leaves of young sprouts are 

 often differently shaped and toothed, and much en- 

 larged." (Porter.) 



Poplar wood, like other soft woods, is not usually 

 esteemed for durability ; but an old couplet, said to have 

 been found inscribed on a poplar plank, teaches dif- 

 ferently : 



" Though ' heart of Oak ' be e'er so stout, 

 Keep me dry, and I'll see him out." 



Fig. 46. Downy-leaved Poplar, River Cottonwood, Swamp 

 Cottonwood. P. heterophylla, L. 



Leaves, SIMPLE ; ALTERNATE ; EDGE TOOTHED. 



Outline, roundish egg-shape. Apex, usually blunt (never 

 taper-pointed). Base, heart-shape, sometimes with the 

 lobes so close or overlapping as to cover the end of 

 the leaf-stem. 



Leaf-stem, nearly round. 



Leaf, three to six inches long (on young sprouts, eight to 

 ten inches) ; when young, thickly covered with white 

 down ; becoming smooth, except on the ribs below. 



Found, in borders of swamps, from Long Island south- 

 ward to Southern Georgia, through the Gulf States 

 to Western Louisiana, and northward to Southern 

 Illinois and Indiana. Rare and local. 



A tree sixty to eighty feet high. 



