88 Trees with Simple Leaves. [Air 



A tree forty to eighty feet high, with, open, crooked 

 branches. Large quantities of the soft, white wood are 

 ground into pulp for making paper. " In both this and 

 the preceding species, the leaves of young sprouts are 

 often differently shaped and toothed, and much en- 

 larged." (Porter.) 



Poplar wood, like other soft woods, is not usually 

 esteemed for durability ; but an old couplet, said to have 

 been found inscribed on a poplar plank, teaches dif- 

 ferently : 



" Though ' heart of Oak ' be e'er so stout, 

 Keep me dry, and I'll see him out." 



Fig. 46. Downy-leaved Poplar, River Cottonwood, Swamp 

 Cottonwood. P. heteroptiylla, L. 



Leaves, SIMPLE ; ALTERNATE ; EDGE TOOTHED. 



Outline, roundish egg-shape. Apex, usually blunt (never 

 taper-pointed). Base, heart-shape, sometimes with the 

 lobes so close or overlapping as to cover the end of 

 the leaf-stem. 



Leaf -stem, nearly round. 



Leaf, three to six inches long (on young sprouts, eight to 

 ten inches) ; when young, thickly covered with white 

 down ; becoming smooth, except on the ribs below. 



Found, in borders of swamps, from Long Island south- 

 ward to Southern Georgia, through the Gulf States 

 to Western Louisiana, and northward to Southern 

 Illinois and Indiana. Rare and local. 



A tree sixty to eighty feet high. 



