COTTONWOODS AND ASPENS 



The Cottonwoods and Aspens are all 

 cheerful, sun-loving trees found in 

 the vicinity of streams or out-croppings 

 of dampness. Their ovate or deltoid 

 leaves, fingered and carressed by warm, 

 ascending breezes, and splashed with 

 sunshine, continually flash greetings to 

 us. Like pendent, silver spangles, they 

 are ever in motion, exchanging con- 

 fidences among themselves or clapping 

 hands and clattering loudly as their sur- 

 faces strike more harshly under the in- 

 fluence of stronger wind gusts. 



The cottonwood, found in the open 

 valleys along the San Luis Rey, San 

 Jacinto and Mohave rivers, with bright, 

 green, triangular, yellowish-green 

 leaves, whitish, much furrowed bark, 

 wide-spreading branches and broad 

 crowns, is the Fremont Cottonwood 

 (Populus fremontii) . It ascends some 



POPULUS is the Latin name of these trees, and is from 

 POPULUS, L, the people, from the number and continual 

 motion of its leaves like a populace. 



73 



