The Poplars 



Streams near the Mexican border of Arizona and New Mexico. 

 Its rhombic, long-pointed leaves are very coarsely toothed, and 

 when they first unfold are dark red, soon becoming yellow-green 

 and leathery. The bark is grey or almost white. 



Balm of Gilead (Populus halsamijera, Linn.) Large tree 

 with stout trunk, 75 to 100 feet high. Bark grey, broken into 

 broad ridges; branches greenish, smooth or with warty out- 

 growths. IVood pale, soft, compact, weak, light brown. Buds 

 long, slender, shining with yellow wax. Leaves broadly ovate, 

 acute, finely and bluntly toothed, thick, shining, dark green, pale, 

 often rusty beneath, 3 to 5 inches long; petioles slender; autumn 

 colour yellow. Flowers, March, before leaves; aments drooping, 

 hairy; stamens 18 to 30, crowded on disc; anthers pale red; 

 pistils green with spreading stigmas; flowers scattered. Fruits, 

 May, capsules scattered on stems 4 to 6 inches long; seed brown, 

 buried in cottony float. Preferred habitat, moist or dry soil near 

 water. Distribution, Newfoundland to Hudson Bay and Alaska; 

 south to Maine, New York, Michigan, Nebraska, Idaho and 

 British Columbia. Uses: Well worthy of planting for shade, 

 ornament and shelter. 



The fragrant wax that saturates the winter buds and coats 

 the young leaves in spring gives this tree its name. The bees 

 find it as soon as the sap stirs and the wax softens. Quantities 

 of it are collected and stored in hives "against a rainy day"; for 

 this is what bees use to seal up weather cracks in their hives. 

 It is known to bee keepers as "propolis." The service this wax 

 renders the tree is to prevent the loss of water from the buds, and 

 the absorption of more, after they are ready for winter. It is 

 not "to keep the buds from freezing," as some people fondly 

 imagine. The buds freeze solid, but it does them no harm. They 

 are adjusted to it. In the far North the Indian uses the balsam 

 of Balm of Gilead trees to seal up the seams of his birch-bark 

 canoe, and of dishes and other utensils made of the same material. 



The forests of Balm of Gilead stretch away over the lake 

 margins and bottom lands of upper Canada, the largest and 

 most prominent feature of vegetation in the vast regions that 

 approach the Arctic circle, and extend down into the northern 

 tier of states, from ocean to ocean. 



The chief interest that centres about the tree is its good 

 record when planted as a shade and ornamental tree, and in 



'51 



