66 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



and corolla, or the former represented by a gland- like cup; ovary 1- to 2-celled; styles 

 wanting, or 2 and short; stigmas often 2-lobed. Fruit a 1- or 2-celled, 2-valved pod 

 with numerous seeds springing from 2 parietal or basal placentae and furnished with 

 long, silky down; seeds ascending, anatropous, without albumen; cotyledons flat. 

 Trees or shrubs of rapid growth, light wood and bitter baik. 



GENUS POPULUS, TOURN. 



Leaves broad, more or less heart-shaped or ovate, and petioles, which are long and 

 often vertically compressed. Flowers appearing before the leaves in long, drooping, 

 lateral, cylindrical catkins, the scales of which are furnished with a fringed margin; 

 calyx represented by an oblique, cup-shaped disk with entire margin; stamens, 8-30 

 or more, with distinct filaments; pistil with very short, bifid style, and large, 2-lobed 

 stigma. Fruit as described for the order. 



Represented by rather large trees. (A Latin word, meaning the people, and appli- 

 cable either from the fact that these trees are often set along public walks, or in 

 allusion to the tremulous leaves which are in constant agitation like a crowd of 

 people.) 



18. POPULUS GRANDIDENTATA, MICHX. 

 LARGE-TOOTHED ASPEN OR POPLAR, WHITE-WOOD. 



Ger., Groszgezante Espe; Fr., Peuplier a grandes dents; Sp., Alano de 



diente grande. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves roundish, ovate, with large and unequal sinnate 

 teeth, densely covered with silky wool when young; smooth both sides when old; 

 twigs terete (not angled as with some of the Poplars). Flowers (May) in catkins 3-4 

 in. long, the sterile longer than the fertile, all the parts hairy, 'stamens about 12, 

 catkin scales unequally 5-6-cleft, furnished with a slight, silky fringe. Fruit as 

 described for the order. 



(The specific name, grandidentata , is from Latin, grandis, large, and dens, a tooth, 

 in allusion to the coarsely- toothed leaves.) 



A medium-sized tree, rarely surpassing 75 ft. (23 m.) in height, or 

 2 ft. (0.61 m.) in diameter of trunk. 



HABITAT. Almost identical in range with the Yellow Birch, being 

 found in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada and the northern States, 

 westward as far as Minnesota, and southward along the mountains to 

 North Carolina and Tennessee. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood soft, close-grained, light, compact, 

 satiny and taking a smooth finish. Very white, when properly seasoned, 

 excepting the heart, which is of a light-brown color. Specific Gravity, 

 0.4632; Percentage of Ash, 0.45; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.4611; Coefficient of Elasticity, 96327; Modulus of Rupture, 721; 

 Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 358; Resistance to Indentation, 62; 

 Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 28.87. 



USES. This tree seems hitherto not to have been ranked as high in 

 the scale of economic value as it deserves, but the reason lies doubtlessly 

 in the fact that it is never of very great size, and it seems to have been 

 overlooked in the abundance of Pines, Tulips, Basswoods, etc., which 



