Populus ^191 



invar, typica. Leaves^ (Plate 409, Fig. 12) similar in shape, colour, size, and margin 

 to those of var. typica, but slightly pubescent when young ; petioles pubescent. 



Catkins i^ to 2 in. long, as in the typical variety, but with a pubescent axis ; 

 stamens in the specimens examined, fewer, about twelve to fifteen ; scales, ovary, 

 and stigmas, identical. Fruiting catkins — on the Bury St. Edmunds tree, which 

 was probably fertilised by staminate trees of the same variety close beside it — about 

 4 in. long, with ovoid capsules about \ in. in length, glabrous and tuberculate on 

 the outer surface ; seed oblanceolate, yellowish, about \ in. long, covered with dense 

 cottony hairs enveloping the whole catkin after the dehiscence of the capsules. 



Forms, in which glabrous catkins are associated with pubescent leaves and 

 branchlets, occur ; and on this account I have refrained from making var. betulifolia 

 a distinct species.^ 



The pubescent variety of the black poplar is the only form occurring in 

 England in the wild state ; and it is also a native of the greater part of France, 

 from Normandy and Picardy to the foot of the Pyrenees. In 191 2 I saw it 

 apparently wild in many places, as in hedges on hills not far from Argentan, where 

 it grows in a small and stunted form. It is most common, however, as a fine tree, 

 often with a burry trunk, along the banks of the great rivers, as on the Seine at 

 Mantes, on the Loire near Tours, on the Garonne in the vicinity both of Bordeaux 

 and of Toulouse, on the Adour between Bayonne and Dax, and on the Gave de 

 Pau, where there are two good trees in a meadow opposite the shrine at Lourdes. 

 This poplar is also frequently planted in botanic gardens, as at Le Mans, Tours, 

 and Montauban, a fine tree in the latter place measuring 90 ft. by 13 ft. There is a 

 specimen in the Montpellier Herbarium, gathered at Ganges on an island in the 

 river Herault ; but I have seen no specimens from Provence.* It is remarkable how 

 this variety has escaped the notice of British botanists, though it has been collected 

 from early times, as there are specimens in the British Museum * gathered by 

 Plukenet and Buddie towards the end of the seventeenth century. 



This tree was first distinguished by the younger Michaux, who found it growing 

 on the banks of the Hudson river above Albany, and mentions large specimens 

 planted in New York city ; but adds that he never saw it in the forest. Sargent ' 

 in 1896 stated that it was growing then on an island in the Delaware river near 

 Easton, Pennsylvania; but in a letter to Kew, dated 31st July 1902, he mentions 

 only a single specimen known to him, an old tree near Boston ; * and adds that it is 



' On very old trees the leaves are smaller, truncate or occasionally subcordate at the base, and with a shorter acumen at 

 the apex. These appear to be P. Muelhriana, Dode. 



2 P. nigra, var. pubescens, Parlatore, Fl. Ital. iv. 289 (1867), was described from trees growing in moist valleys at 

 S. Martino, Palermo; and is recorded in Thessaly by Halacsy, Consp. Fl. Grcsc. iii. 136 (1904). A specimen in the Cambridge 

 Herbarium has branchlets, leaves, petioles, and female catkins covered with long white hairs ; and is much more pubescent than 

 trees growing in England. P. hispida, Haussknecht, which I have not seen, is probably the same as var. pubescens. 



* Pard^ in Bull. Soc. Dend. France, 1911, p. 255, states that P. nigra is pretty common in Provence; but this is 

 probably var. typica. 



* Herb. Sloan, 83, fol. 8, and 126, fol. 6. 



^ Silva N. Amer. ix. 153, note (1896). In the Montpellier Herbarium there is a specimen of this tree labelled " Populus, 

 New York, growing planted opposite Dr. Hosack's door in Broadway, May 7, 1807." Another specimen named P. hudsonica, 

 Michaux, was taken from a tree growing at Versailles in 1808. 



^ This is no doubt the tree which I saw growing on the shore of Jamaica Pond, when staying with Prof. Sargent in 

 1904, and recognised at once as the English black poplar by its burry trunk and foliage. — H. J. E. 



VII U 



