WHITEWOOD OR TULIP-TREE WOOD, POPLAR OR COTTONWOOD, 



(Liriodendron.) (Populus.) 



CUCUMBER-TREE WOOD, BASSWOOD. 



(Magnolia. ) ( Tilia. ) 



These trees are not related, but are all noted for woods 

 with soft, fine qualities, such as fit them for carvings, wooden- 

 ware, and paper-pulp. No one of the woods is durable when 

 exposed, and all are used for boxes because they nail without 

 splitting. The names are commercially interchangeable. 



The whitewood or tulip tree (Liriodendron tidipiferd} is a 

 native of America and an acclimated tree in Europe. It is the 

 sole surviving species of its genus. The wood is soft, stiff, 



clean, fine, straight-grained, and 

 obtainable in large-sized pieces. 

 Much whitewood is made into 



^ lumber, the wood standing among 



those of the broad! eaf series as 

 white pine does among the coni- 

 fers. Whitewood is particularly 

 suitable for carvings. In spite 

 of its name it is largely greenish 

 yellow. It is often divided com- 

 mercially, according to color, into 

 "white poplar" and "yellow poplar." Trunks often attain 

 to a very large size. Matthews mentions a specimen * thirty- 

 three feet in circumference. The species may be known by its 

 large tulip-shaped flower. Liriodendron is from two Greek 

 words meaning lily and tree. 



The poplars, sometimes called cottonwoods because of 

 their seeds" covered with a cotton-like down, are represented 

 on both continents. The wood was made into shields by the 



V 







WHITEWOOD (LiriodenJron 

 tulipifera). 



*_F. Schuyler Matthews, "Familiar Trees " (Appleton, 1901), p. 39. 



80 



