Handbook of Tkkes of 



Tin 



Xoir 



ATKS AND 



109 



The (Quaking Asp is usually a slender tree 

 developing in the open a loose rounded top, 

 and tlie trunk seldom more than 18 in. or 2 tt. 

 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 l);irk 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 scaly ridges. A 

 conspicuous feature of the tree is the constant 

 igitation of its small rounded leaves, occasioned 

 even by the sliglitest breezes, on account of 

 their long flattened 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 easily scattered by 

 the winds, and it quickly covers forest lands 

 recently deraided 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 v.ood is light, a cubic foot when abso- 

 lutely dry Aveighing 25.13 lbs., soft and is 

 used mainly in the manufacture of paper pulp 

 and excelsior. 1 



Lrnrrs ovate to suborbicular, W^-^ in. Ion?, 

 rounded or subcordate at base, short acuminate 

 at apex, with finely crenate and ciliate margin, 

 glabrous: petioles very slender and laterally com- 

 pressed; winter buds glabrous. Flomrrn 114-2 in. 

 long : scales deeply .'5-.5-cleft into linear lobes 

 fringed with gray hairs : staminato aments with 

 disk entire, and 6-12 stamens ; stigmas 2 with 

 linear lobes. Fruit (May-.Tune) capsules oblon-j 

 conical. 2-valved : seed.s about l-.'?2 in. Ion;, 

 obovate. 



1. A. W., Ill, 72. 



