THE MAGNOLIA AND TULIP-TREE 171 



THE TULIP-TREE 



The tulip-tree is one of the largest and the most valuable of our 

 eastern trees, a favorite in private parks, and increasingly planted 

 in suburbs throughout the eastern states and in central and western 

 Europe. It is otherwise unknown in the latter continent, although 

 it was not at all uncommon there for thousands of years previous 

 to the Ice Age and before the advent of man in that region. 



Until recently our common tulip-tree, or yellow poplar as it is 

 often called, especially by lumbermen, although it is entirely un- 

 related to the true poplars, was thought to be the sole living repre- 

 sentative of the genus Liriodendron — the name is from the Greek 

 and signifies the tree with Hly-like flowers, a singularly appropriate 

 etymology. A few years ago a very similar tree was discovered 

 in China, whose flora shares so much with that of eastern North 

 America. It is so like its American relative that there was some 

 question whether or not it really differed at all. Technically it 

 was christened as the Chinese variety of the American tree, but 

 subsequently it has quite generally been given species rank, so 

 that these two — Liriodendron chinensis in the Orient and Lirioden- 

 dron tulipifera in the Occident, on the opposite sides of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, represent the last survivors of an ancient race. They 

 hold their titles in fee simple from the Upper Cretaceous, but now 

 much reduced in their territories as compared with their far flung 

 range in the past over North America, Asia, Europe and the Arc- 

 tic. Time was once when the sun never set on the tuhp-tree, but 

 the old days will never come back for our trees — humanity has 

 largely replaced them. 



Our American tulip-tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, has a tall 

 straight columnar trunk with deeply furrowed bark, and relatively 

 small branches which are not thrown out nearer than 80 to 100 

 feet of the ground. The tree frequently reaches a height of 200 

 feet and a trunk diameter of from 8 to 12 feet. It reaches its 

 largest size in the deep rich soil of the lower Ohio valley. There is 

 an immense old tuHp-tree at Annapolis named for General Lafayette, 

 and one old colonial manor in southern Maryland has a long en- 

 trance drive bordered wdth old giants of this species. 



