THE POPLARS 77 



The Black Poplar 



P. nigra, Linn. 



The Lombardy poplar, a variety of the black poplar of 

 Europe, is a familiar tree figure along roadsides, and often 

 marks boundary lines between farms. Each tree is an 

 exclamation point, its branches short and numerous, 

 rising toward the zenith. The roundish leaves that twinkle 

 on these aspiring branches make the tree pretty and in- 

 teresting when young — just the thing to accent a group of 

 round-headed trees in a park. But not many years are 

 attained before the top becomes choked with the multitude 

 of its branches. The tree cannot shed this dead wood and 

 the beauty of its youth is departed. The trunk grows 

 coarse, warty, and buttressed at the base. Suckers are 

 thrown up from the roots. There is little left to challenge 

 admiration. Since the tree gives practically no shade, we 

 must believe that the first planters were attracted by its 

 odd shape and its readiness to grow, rather than by any 

 belief in its fitness for avenue and highway planting. 



The Cottonwood 



P. delfoidea, Marsh. 



The Cottonwood justifies its existence, if ever a tree did. 

 On our Western plains, where the watercourses are slug- 

 gish and few and often run dry in midsummer, few tree^ 

 grow; and the settler and traveler is grateful for the cotton- 

 woods. The pioneer on the Western prairie planted it for 

 shade and for wind-breaks about his first home. !Maiiy 

 of these trees attain great age and in protected situations 



