SWAMP COTTONWOOD; BLACK COTTONWOOD f Populus het- 

 erophylla, Linn.). 50 to 90 feet. Round-top]: ed tree with 

 slender branches and stout twigs. Buds small, resinous. 

 Bark red-brown, in broad ridges, with loose plates. Wood 

 brown, light, compact, "black poplar" used in the interior 

 finish of houses and for small articles. Leaves broadly ovate, 

 4 to 7 inches long, with fine saw-toothed margin, white and 

 downy as they unfold, dark green with pale linings when ma- 

 ture, on round, slim petioles; yellow or brown in autumn. 

 Flowers March, in crowded catkins, held erect until the flowers 

 open; bracts fringed, stamens red; pistillate catkins few- 

 flowered, 1 to 2 inches long, finally drooping. Fruit 2-celled, 

 thin- walled capsules, bell-shaped, inch long; seed minute, 

 dark red, in cottony float; wind sown in May. Dist.: 

 Swampy ground, Connecticut to Louisiana along the rivers, 

 Indiana to Arkansas and the Gulf. 



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