Handbook of Trees of the I^okthern States am* ( 



10l> 



Ihe Quaking Asp is usually a slender tree 

 developing in the open a loose rounded top, 

 and the trunk seldom more than 18 in. or 2 ft. 

 in diameter, but in forests where it attains 

 its largest size it grows to a height of 90 or 

 100 ft. with trunk sometimes 3 ft. in diameter. 

 The bark of branches and young trunks is of a 

 pale yellowish green color, or often nearly 

 white, and on older trunks becomes fissured 

 and divided into nearly black scalj^ ridges. A 

 conspicuous f-ature of tlie tree is the constant 

 iL'itation of its small rounded leaves, occasioned 

 even by tlie slightest breezes, on account of 

 their long llattened stems. It is a very useful 

 tree in the economy of Nature in that its 

 seeds, seeming possessed of an exceptional 

 power of germination, are easilj^ scattered In 

 the winds, and it quickly covers forest lands 

 recently denuded by fires with a fresh growth 

 of little forest trees. In the shelter of these 

 the tender seeds of more useful trees germinate 

 and thrive, and eventually monopolize the soil, 

 ungratefully crowding to the wall by their 

 overpowering shade the slender Aspens which 

 assisted them into existence. 



The wood is light, a cubic foot when abso- 

 lutely dry weighing 25.1.3 lbs., soft and is 

 used mainly in tlie manufacture of paper pulp 

 and excelsior.' 



Leaves ovate to siiborbicular, lMi-3 in. Ion?, 

 rounded or sut)cordatP at base, short acuminato 

 at apex, with finely crenato and ciliate margin, 

 glabrous : petioles very slender and laterally com- 

 pressed : winter buds slabroiis. Flowers 1V.-2 in. 

 Ions : .scales deeply .'i-.">-cleft info linear" lobes 

 frinped with gray hairs : staminate aments with 

 disk entire, and 0-12 stamens: stigmas 2 with 

 linear lobes. Fruit (May-.Iune) capsules oblong 

 conical. 2-valved ; seeds" about l-;i2 in. long, 

 obovate. 



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