38 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



it is invaluable owing to the ease with which it is started and its very 

 rapid growth. Stakes made from vigorous branches before the sap has 

 started in the spring are simply driven into the ground and nature does 

 the rest. They soon take root, send out branches and after getting 

 well started grow with wonderful rapidity, sometimes increasing nearly 

 or quite two inches in diameter in a season. The timber is used to some 

 extent for fencing, fuel, etc., and its cottony fiber would suggest its value 

 for paper-pulp. It makes a valuable charcoal and the ashes are rich in 

 potash. The bark abounds in tannin and is of use for tanning purposes, 

 and the small branches are used in basket making. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. Those mentioned of the Black Willow 

 (S. nigra) are equally true of this. 



GENUS POPULUS, TOTJRN. 



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.) 



47. POPULUS BALSAMIFERA, L. 

 BALSAM POPLAR, TACAMAHAC. 



Ger., Balsampappel ; Fr., Peuplier baumier-; Sp., Alamo balsamico. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves ovate, pointed, finely and closely serrate, smooth 

 both sides, whitish and reticulate- veined beneath; buds in spring large and copiously 

 covered with a fragrant aromatic varnish; branchlets terete. Flowers appear in 

 April or May, the sterile catkins 2-3 inches and the fertile 4-6 inches in length; 

 stamens very numerous, purple; scales of catkin dilated, laciuiate-fringed and 

 slightly hairy. 



A variety of this species known as var. candicans, and popularly as the Balm of 

 Gilead, has broader, heart-shaped leaves and commonly hairy petioles. It is ranked 

 by some authors as a distinct species. 



(Balsamifera is the Latin for balsam bearing, alluding to the balsamic varnish 

 found on the buds.) 



A tall tree, sometimes attaining the height of 80 ft. (24 m.) and 6 or 

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



HABITAT. Northern United States, Canada and north-westward to 

 Alaska, preferring the damp soil of the low-lands, river banks, etc. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. "Wood very light, soft, close-grained and not 

 strong; sap-wood thick and nearly white; heart-wood reddish-brown. 

 Specific Gravity, 0.3635; Percentage of Ash, 0.66; Relative Approximate 



