POPINAC 



POPULUS 



1407 



POPINAC is Acacia Farnesiana. 



POPLAR. See Populus. 



POPLAR, YELLOW. Liriodendron. 



POPPY. Papaver. California P. is Eschscholzia. 

 Celandine P. Stylophorum. Corn P. Papaver Bhoeas. 

 Horned P. is Glaucium. Opium P. is Papaver somni- 

 fermn. Prickly P. See Argemone. Shirley P. is the 

 finest strain of Papaver Wioeas. Tulip P. Hunne- 

 mannia. Welsh P. See Meconopsis Cambrica. 



POPPY MALLOW is CaUirhoe. 



1906. Staminate catkins of Populus tremuloides (X 



POPULUS (ancient Latin name). POPLAR. ASPEN. 

 From 20 to 25 soft-wooded trees of mostly small or 

 medium size in the northern hemisphere, and which, 

 with Salix, comprise the family Salicdcece. The Poplars 

 are dioecious, with both staminate and pistillate flowers 

 naked and in slender mostly drooping catkins in which 

 the scales are cut or cleft at the apex: stamens few or 

 many, usually numerous, on distinct filaments : pistillate 

 fls. comprising a single 1-loculed mostly sessile ovary 

 with short style and 2-4 often lobed long stigmas : fr. 

 a small 2-4-valved capsule, containing cottony seeds: 

 Ivs. alternate, stalked, mostly broad: buds scaly, often 

 resinous. The Poplar of lumbermen is the tulip-tree. 

 (See Liriodendron.) 



The Poplars are amongst the easiest of all trees to 

 grow. They grow readily from hardwood cuttings, as 

 willows and currants do. The weeping varieties are 

 grafted head-high on erect kinds, P. grandidentata 

 being much used as a stock. Poplars thrive in almost 

 any soil, although the Cottonwood is most at home in 

 lowlands and along streams, at least in the East. For 

 shelter-belts they are very useful because of their rapid 

 growth and great hardiness. In the prairie states some 

 of the Russian Poplars (particularly the form known 

 as P. Certinensis) are now popular, because they with- 

 stand the trying winters. The Poplars are also useful 

 for temporary shelter for other trees and bushes. In 

 this respect the common Aspen (P. tremuloides) is one 

 of the most valuable of all trees in the reforestation of 

 American lands. It springs up quickly in clearings, 

 and during its comparatively short life holds the soil 

 and protects other vegetation and finally contributes its 

 own substance to the maintenance of the stronger 

 forests. In this way it has exerted a most powerful 

 effect upon the configuration of our forest areas and 

 upon the fertility of the land from remote time. The 

 same qualities make it valuable, in many instances, in 

 extensive ornamental plantings. 



The fault in the planting of Poplars is the tendency 

 to plant too many and to allow them to give character 

 to the place. About summer resorts, for example, 

 Poplars and willows are used much too freely. They 

 give the place a look of cheapness. They are planted in 



such places because they grow rapidly and thrive in un- 

 favorable conditions; but it is better to use them for 

 temporary effects, allowing better trees, that are planted 

 with them, gradually to take their places. The legiti- 

 mate use of Poplars in ornamental grounds is the pro- 

 duction of minor or secondary effects. As a rule, they 

 are less adapted to isolated planting as specimen trees 

 than to use in composition, as parts of general groups 

 of trees, where their characters will serve to break the 

 monotony of heavier foliage. The Poplars are gay 

 trees, as a rule, especially those, like the Aspens, which 

 have a trembling foliage. Their leaves are bright and 

 the tops thin. A few of them in judicious positions 

 give a place a sprightly air. This is particularly true 

 of the common Aspen, or Populus tremuloides, of our 

 woods (Figs. 1906, 1916). Its light dancing foliage and 

 silver-gray limbs are always cheering and its autumn 

 color is one of the purest golden yellows of our land- 

 scapes. It is well to have a tree of it standing in front 

 of a group of maples or evergreens. Its whole attitude 

 is then one of familiarity. 



The Cottonwood is perhaps the best of all our Poplars 

 as a single specimen. It makes a noble tree, spreading 

 its gray branches far and wide. But like the Aspen, it 

 is cheerful and restive. One is not moved to lie under 

 it, as he is under a maple or an oak. Its leaves rustle 

 with the lightest movement of air. The ripple of its 

 foliage recalls the play of wavelets on a pebbly shore. 

 The day is never so dark but the Cottonwood reflects a 

 flood of light. 



Some of the forms of the black Poplar of Europe 

 are especially satisfactory for the production of lively 

 effects in planting. Of these, none is better than the 

 form known to nurserymen as Populus elegans. It has 

 a most pleasing light and tremulous foliage, the effect 

 of which is heightened by a twiggy character of growth 

 and a reddish cast to the leaf-stalks and young shoots. 

 It is an elegant tree, and well adapted to planting in 

 front of heavier foliage in the most conspicuous part 

 of the grounds. 



Some of the silver- or white-leaved Poplars produce 

 the most striking contrasts of foliage, especially if set 

 near darker trees. Belles' Poplar (Populus Bolleana 

 of the nurseries) is one of the best of these trees. Its 

 habit is something like that of the Lombardy. The 

 upper surface of the deeply lobed leaves is dark dull 

 green, while the under surface is almost snowy white. 

 Such emphatic trees as this should generally be par- 



1907. A good clump of Lombardy Poplar. 



tially obscured, by planting them amongst other trees so 

 that they appear to mix with the other foliage, or else 

 they should be seen at some distance. Other varieties 

 of the common white Poplar or Abele are occasionally 

 useful, although most of them sprout badly and may 

 become a nuisance. The Lombardy Poplar is probably 



