BALSAM POPLAR, OR TACAMAHAC. 



213 



yellowish green when first expanded, but when matured 

 of a deep green on the upper surface and whitish green 

 beneath, with glabrous reticulated veins. The catkins of 

 the male are long, the stamens of a purplish red colour. 

 Instances of hermaphrodite flowers are mentioned as having 

 been found on some trees in England, but they are very 

 rare. Its roots run near the surface, and it throws up 

 numerous suckers, on which account it ought never to find 

 a place on lawns or the vicinity of gardens. In addition 

 to the list of Tacamahacs mentioned by Loudon, we may 

 add, a very fine round-headed tree at Belford,* about fifty 

 feet high, with a trunk, at a foot from the ground, 

 seven feet nine inches in circumference ; at Twizell, about 

 eighteen years planted, it is thirty-five feet high, and 

 three feet girth at the base. 



The leaves are the favourite food of the caterpillar of 

 Smerinthus populi as well as of some of those of the genus 

 Cerura, also of that of Notodonta ziczac, &c. 



Nearly allied to the 

 Tacamahac is the Pop. 

 candicans, Ontario Pop- 

 lar, also introduced from 

 North America, and cul- 

 tivated sparingly for the 

 last thirty or forty years 

 as an ornamental tree. Its 

 leaves are heart-shaped, 

 and much larger than those 

 of Pop. balsamifera, and 

 when young it is not quite 

 so fastigiate in its growth. 



* Our first figure is a portrait of this tree, that on the opposite page of younger 

 growth, showing its usual form. 



