1832 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



in a shallow cup-shaped crenate disc. Fruiting catkins, 4 in. long ; capsule two- 

 valved, glabrous, on a ^ in. long pedicel. 



This species is a native of the Rocky Mountain region of North America, 

 usually growing on the banks of streams between 5000 and 10,000 ft. It occurs as 

 far north as south-western Assiniboia, extending southward through the Black Hills 

 of Dakota, Montana, eastern Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado,' to central Nevada, 

 Arizona, and New Mexico. 



It is readily distinguishable amongst the balsam poplars by its willow-like leaves, 

 which scarcely show any whitish tint beneath. 



It was introduced into cultivation by Spath ^ of Berlin, who received young plants 

 from Colorado in 1893. It forms at Kew small trees of spreading irregular habit, and 

 may be looked upon as rather a shrub than a tree in this country. (A. H.) 



POPULUS BALSAM I FERA, Balsam Poplar 



Populus bahamifera, Linnaeus, Sp. PL 1034 (exd. syn. Catesby et Gmelin) (1753) ; Loudon, Arb. et 

 Frut. Brit. iii. 1673 (in part) (1838); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. ix. 167, t. 490 (1896), and 

 Trees N. Amer. 157 (1905); Schneider, Laubhohkunde, i. 14(1904); Dode, in Mem. Soc. 

 Hist. Nat. Autun, xviii. 62 (1905); Gombocz, in Math. Termes. Kdzl. xxx. 108 (19 11). 



Populus Michauxi, Dode, op. cit. 62 (1905). 



A tree, attaining in America 100 ft. in height and 20 ft. in girth. Bark at first 

 smooth, light reddish brown ; on old trunks deeply divided into broad rounded ridges, 

 Young branchlets terete, without projecting ridges, glabrous. Buds elongated, sharp- 

 pointed, exuding a yellowish strong-smelling resin. Leaves (Plate 410, Fig. 27) 

 on long shoots averaging 4 in. long and 2 in. broad, ovate, rounded at the 

 base, narrowing towards the apex, which is often abruptly acuminate, glabrous on 

 both surfaces, whitish and often tinged with rusty red beneath ; margin minutely 

 and sparsely ciliate, with crenate serrations, ending in short incurved glandular 

 points ; lateral nerves about eight pairs, each of the lowest pair giving off at its origin 

 usually one secondary nerve, making with the midrib the base of the blade pseudo- 

 five-palminerved ; petiole quadrangular, channelled above, with a minute scattered 

 pubescence. Leaves on short shoots smaller, broader in proportion to their length. 



Staminate catkins about 3 in. long ; axis with a few scattered hairs ; pedicels long 

 and similarly pubescent ; scales broadly obovate, often irregularly three-lobed at the 

 apex, with numerous short thread-like divisions ; stamens about twenty on an 

 oblique crenate deep saucer-shaped glabrous disc. Pistillate catkins : disc cup- 

 shaped ; ovary ovoid, two-lobed, with two nearly sessile large oblique dilated 

 crenulate stigmas. Fruiting catkins 5 in. long ; capsule ovoid, curved at the apex, 

 two-valved, on a slender pedicel about ^ in. long. 



This species, extending over a wide area in North America, is probably vari- 

 able ; and may hybridise with P. candicans. The form distinguished by Dode as 



1 F. von Holdt, of Arvada, Colorado, in Mitt. Deut. Vend. Ges., 1 91 2, pp. 118, 119, describes this poplar in its native 

 home, and gives a fine photograph of it growing on the edge of a mountain lake. 



2 Catalogue, No. 91, p. 49 (1893- 1894). 



