THE COTTONWOOD 



DURING recent years the Cottonwood has been very largely utilized for ornamental 

 planting in the streets, parks and private grounds of many of our cities. For 

 such purposes it has the advantage of ease of propagation by means of cuttings 

 which enable the nurserymen to offer the trees at a low price, of rapidity of growth, giving 

 a considerable shade a very few years after planting, of comparative freedom from insect 

 or fungus attack, and of smoothness of foliage which keeps clean even in the smoke-laden 

 atmosphere of the manufacturing cities, where large quantities of soft coal are used. A 

 variety most commonly sold is the Carolina Poplar, and probably in many cities the species 

 is better known by that name than by the name of Cottonwood. 



In summer this species is most easily distinguished by means of the broad leaves 

 with the rounded, forward-pointing teeth along the margins, these teeth commonly 

 extending in a more or less modified form clear around to the junction of the petiole with 

 the blade. The base is generally cut more or less squarely off and is not heart-shaped, a 

 fact which distinguishes it at once from the leaf of the Balm of Gilead. The apex is long, 

 slender and sharply pointed. These leaves more nearly resemble those of the Lombardy 

 Poplar than any of the other species, but they are generally to be distinguished from the 

 latter by the fact that they are longer in proportion to their breadth than are the leaves 

 of the Lombardy Poplar, while the tree of course is to be distinguished by its more hori- 

 zontal direction of the larger limbs. Both surfaces of the leaf are smooth, shining green, 

 the upper side being somewhat darker than the under side. In Winter the Cottonwood 

 is notable for its very large buds which resemble in a general way those of the Balm of 

 Gilead but lack the strong distinctive odor of the latter species. The young shoots 

 are greenish or greenish brown, often more or less striped with longitudinal lines or 

 spotted with grayish dots. The twigs of large trees which have borne blossoming catkins 

 are commonly marked by the swollen bases to which these catkins were attached, giving 

 the branch a curiously irregular appearance. 



The Cottonwood is indigenous to a great region extending from Vermont and 

 Quebec on the north and from the Rocky Mountains on the west to New Mexico, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Maryland and Florida on the south. In the more eastern parts of its range it is 

 neither so large nor so abundant as in the Central West, where it becomes one of the 

 most characteristic trees. It has been very largely used for planting in the Great Plains 

 region, forming probably the commonest tree upon which tree claims for land were based. 

 In the Middle West vast numbers of natural seedlings grow every year upon the sandy 

 bars and shores of the rivers. These are readily transplanted to other situations. The 

 species is even more easily reproduced by cuttings of vigorous twigs half an inch in 

 4iameter and about two feet long. 



(82) 



