Balm of Gilead 



169 



a maximum height of between 60 and 70 meters, with a trunk 2.5 meters in diam- 

 eter or more. 



The thick bark is light gray and deeply fissured on old trunks. The stout 

 young twigs are round or somewhat angled, and finely hairy, becoming orange to 

 gray, and shining. The resinous buds are orange-brown, ovoid, pointed, about 

 2 cm. long, often curved. The leaves are broadly ovate to ovate-oblong, pointed, 

 rather thick, 8 to 12 cm. long, rounded, slightly heart-shaped or somewhat narrowed 

 at the base and finely toothed with blunt teeth ; when young they are more or less 

 hairy, especially on the upper side, when mature dark green, smooth and shining 

 above, light green or almost white 

 and smooth except on the veins of 

 the under side, which are usually a 

 little hairy; the round leaf-stalks 

 vary from 2 to 6 cm. long; the stip- 

 ules are narrow and i to 2 cm. long. 

 The tree flowers, according to lati- 

 tude, from February to April; the cat- 

 kins are stalked, their scales cut into 

 many filiform lobes, the staminate 

 ones 8 cm. long or less; there are 40 

 stamens or more in each staminate 

 flower; the pistillate catkins are 

 usually rather densely flowered, the 

 flowers sessile or nearly so, with 

 nearly sessile, much dilated stigmas 

 and an ovoid hairy ovary. The ripe 

 capsules are nearly globular, about 8 

 mm. thick, and usually very hairy, 

 whence the specific name trichocarpa, 

 but they sometimes become nearly 



smooth; t^ey are stalkless or very 

 , ^ , 1, 1 Fig. 124. — Balsam Cottonwood, 



short-stalked. 



The tree grows rapidly and its wood is used for barrels, tubs, bowls, and 



other wooden- ware; it is brown, soft, and weak, with a specific gravity of about 0.38. 



4. BALM OF GILEAD — Populus candicans Aiton 



The Bahn of Gilead poplar is found from Newfoundland to New Jersey and 

 Virginia, westward to Michigan, South Dakota, Alberta, and Alaska; in the east 

 it occurs mainly as an escape from cultivation, having been extensively planted 

 for shade and ornament, and the source of these planted trees is not definitely 

 known. Evidence that it is wild in Michigan has been adduced, and it is probably 

 indigenous further to the northwest. It sometimes reaches a height of 30 meters, 



