THE POPLARS 81 



reaching two hundred feet in height, and seven to eight feet 

 in trunk diameter. Tall and stately, it lifts its broad 

 rounded crown upon heavy upright limbs. In the Yo- 

 semite the dark, rich green of these poplar groves along the 

 Merced River makes a rich, velvet margin, glorious when it 

 turns to gold in autumn. 



Swamp Cottonwood 

 P. Iieterophylla, Linn. 



The swamp cottonwood of the South has leaves of varia- 

 ble but distinctly poplar form, always large, broadly ovate, 

 with slim round petioles. The white down of the un- 

 folding leaves often persists into midsummer. On ac- 

 count of the fluttering leaves the trees were called, by the 

 early Acadians, " Langiies de Jemmes''' a mild calumny trace- 

 able to the herbalist, Gerarde, who compares them to 

 "women's tongues, which seldom cease wagging." 



The wood of poplars, soft, weak, and of slight value for 

 fuel or lumber, has within two decades come into a position 

 of great economic importance. Wood pulp is made of it, 

 and out of wood pulp a thousand articles, from toys to 

 wheels of locomotives, are made. A state forester de- 

 clared: *'If I could replace the maples in the state forest by 

 poplars to-day, I would do it gladly. It would be worth 

 thousands of dollars to the state." 



THE WILLOWS 



Along the watercourses the willow family finds its most 

 congenial habitat. It is a very large family, numbering 

 more than one hundred and seventy species, which are, 



