POPULUS POTENTILLA 221 



Var. PENDULA. Parasol de St. Julien. A pendulous variety. According 

 to a note by M. Ferdinand Cayeux in the Garden for January 21, 1886, p. 65, 

 it was found by a foreman in the employ of Messrs Baltet at St. Julien, near 

 Troves, in 1865. It has more slender twigs than the weeping variety of 

 P. tremula, but it is a female, and the catkins are not so striking as the male 

 ones of the weeping aspen. 



P. TRICHOCARPA, Hooker. BLACK COTTON WOOD. 



A tree often (according to Sargent) 200 ft. high in certain parts of its 

 habitat ; young trees marked by a slender, pyramidal habit, and by peeling, 

 ultimately smooth, yellow-grey bark ; winter buds coated with fragrant 

 balsamic gum, brown and slender ; young shoots slightly angled, furnished 

 at first with a slight down, soon nearly or quite smooth. Leaves ovate, 

 slightly heart-shaped at the base or broadly wedge-shaped, slender-pointed, 

 finely and shallowly toothed, very variable in size ; as much as 8 or 10 ins. 

 long, and half as wide on very vigorous leading shoots, down to 2 ins. long, 

 and i in. wide on lateral twigs ; dark lustrous green above, very white and 

 conspicuously net-veined beneath, soon quite smooth on both surfaces ; 

 stalk i to 2 ins. long. Male catkins 2 to 2^ ins. long, female ones twice as 

 long at maturity. 



Native of Western N. America, and undoubtedly the finest of the balsam 

 poplars, if not of all poplars. It is remarkable that although distinguished 

 sixty years ago, it was introduced to this country only about twenty years 

 since. A tree planted on the banks of the ha-ha between Kew Gardens and 

 the Thames, became in thirteen years 55 ft. high, and about 4 ft. in girth. 

 A fine tree in the Dresden Botanic Garden was in 1908 about 70 ft. high and 

 5 ft. 10 ins. in girth. In the early stages of its growth in spring, this tree 

 fills the air around with its balsamic odour. It is the quickest grower of the 

 balsam group, amongst which its peeling young bark distinguishes it. Easily 

 increased by cuttings, and worth trying extensively as a timber-producing tree. 



POTENTILLA. CINQUEFOIL. ROSACES. 



Of this large genus the vast majority are hardy herbaceous plants, 

 but three species are shrubby, and quite hardy in Britain. They have 

 compound leaves, and white or yellow flowers resembling a small single 

 rose in form. From all other hardy trees and shrubs at all allied to them 

 these Potentillas are distinguished by the bracteolate calyx ; i.e., alternating 

 with and outside the ordinary lobes of the calyx are five bracts, narrower 

 and shorter than they are. The cinquefoils are nearly allied to the 

 strawberries, but differ in having the tiny fruits (achenes) crowded on a 

 dry, not fleshy or succulent, receptacle. 



The following species like a good loamy soil with plenty of moisture. 

 Propagation is best effected by seeds, but cuttings of late summer wood 

 will take root, even of Salesoviana, which, however, does not root readily. 

 All three species are useful in flowering after most shrubs are out of 

 bloom. 



P. DAVURICA, Nestler. DWARF SHRUBBY CINQUEFOIL. 



(P. glabra, Loddiges, Bot. Mag., t. 3676.) 



A very dwarf, compact, deciduous shrub, usually below i^ ft. in height, with 

 erect stems and drooping twigs. Leaves smooth, i in. or less long, composed 



