1650 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III 



shoots and leaves had been protruded from this T^JN 1510 

 plant, and been blackened by frost ; while in P 

 tremula and P. canadensis the leaf buds were most 

 of them unchanged from their appearance in winter. 

 Michaux states that, in America, the American 

 aspen blossoms about the 20th of April, and that 

 the leaves appear in ten days or a fortnight after- 

 wards. He describes the leaves as small when 

 compared with those of other poplars, and as being 

 thrown into agitation by the gentlest breath of air. 

 The catkins are composed of silky plumes, which are 

 pendulous, and protruded from the extremity of the 

 shoots. The bracteas of the male flowers are of a 

 dark chestnut colour, but are fringed with white 

 hairs. The perianth is white. The anthers are 

 numerous, and deep brown ; the pollen is white 

 The bark is smooth. The wood, according to Bige- 

 low, is light, fine, soft, and perishable ; and the 

 bark is used as a febrifuge. In the United States, it is scarcely applied to 

 any useful purpose ; though Michaux was informed that it had been 

 successfully divided into very thin laminae, for the fabrication of women's 

 hats ; and that these hats were, for a short time, fashionable in several 

 towns of the United Stater. Among the Cree Indians, the wood is esteemed 

 to burn better, in a green state, than that of any other tree in the country. 

 (Franklin's first Journ., p. 753.) In Britain, this tree is in several col- 

 lections, but is not very common : we believe it to be only a variety of 

 the European P. tremula. Plants, in the London nurseries, are 2s. 6d. 

 each ; and at New York, 20 cents. 



5. P. (T.) GRANDIDENTA X TA Michx. The \arge-toothed-leaved Poplar, 

 or North American large Aspen. 



Identification. Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer., 2. p. 24& ; Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 2. p. 243. t. 99. f. 2. ; 



Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 619. ; Spreng. Syst, 2. p. 244. 

 Engravings. Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 2. t. 99. f. 2. ; and our fig. 1511. 

 The Sexes. The female is represented in Michaux's figure. The plants in the Horticultural Society'i 



Garden have not yet flowered. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaf, when young, villous, afterwards glabrous on both 

 surfaces ; the petiole compressed in the terminal part ; the disk roundish- 

 ovate, acute, sinuately toothed with large unequal teeth. (Pursh and 

 Michx. sen.) Wild in Canada, and a 

 tree, 40 ft. or 50 ft. high, with a trunk 

 10 in. or 12 in. in diameter. The full- 

 formed disk of the leaf is nearly round, 

 and 2 in. or Sin. in width. (Michx. jun.} 

 P. grandidentata is occasionally met with 

 in the American woods, but is much less 

 common than P. trepida. It is easily 

 distinguished from the various cultivated 

 kinds of poplar, by the large unequal 

 indentations of the margins of the leaves. 

 The leaves, as Michaux observes, are 

 covered, when young, with a white down, 

 which disappears as they grow older. In 

 many instances, the disk is furnished 

 with a pair of glands at the base. The 

 catkins appear in May, and are 2 in. or 

 3 in. long. The wood is much like that 

 of P. trepida. (Bigeloufs Account of " The 

 Plants of Boston and its Vicinity in 1824," 

 p. 369, 370.) There are plants of this 



