THE WHITE POPLAR 



FEW trees have been so often referred to in European literature as the White Poplar. 

 It has been associated with men more intimately than almost any other species, 

 and has been the subject of numerous legends and traditions in the folk-lore of 

 many peoples. In America it was planted about the homes of the earliest colonists, and 

 has often spread quite widely from these originally imported trees. 



The most striking feature of the White Poplar is found in the differing color of the 

 two surfaces of the leaves. The upper side is a very dark green, which in shadow is almost 

 black, while the under surface is of a glistening white that shows in a very striking manner 

 when the wind blows violently. Cowper wrote of 



" The poplar that with silver lines his leaf," 

 and Tennyson mentions 



" Blasts that blow the poplar white," 



while our own Aldrich has said, 



" We knew it would rain for the poplars showed 

 The white of their leaves." 



This silvery pubescence is not by any means confined to the leaves. In winter the 

 White Poplar is at once distinguished from all the other species by the dense, cottony down 

 that covers the buds and twigs. The tree often attains a large size, and the grayish bark 

 of the trunk is generally rough aud irregular. 



Like the other Poplars the pollen-bearing and seed-bearing flowers are upon separate 

 trees. The flower-buds are large and conspicuous and develop very early in spring into 

 long, drooping catkins. The cottony seeds mature a few weeks later and are scattered 

 far and wide by the wind. Thickets of young poplars commonly grow up around neglected 

 trees, arising from underground shoots that spread in all directions. The leaves on such 

 vigorous young trees are thickly covered with cottony down giving to the thicket a very 

 white appearance that is sure to attract attention. 



(86) 



