1846 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



POPULUS LASIOCARPA 



Populus lasiocarpa, Oliver, in Hooker, Icon. Plant, xx. t. 1943 (1891); BurkiU, in Journ. Linn. Soc. 



{Boi) xxvi. 536 (1899); J. H. Veitch, m Journ. R. Hert. Soc. xxviii. 65, fig. 27 (1903); 



Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 17 (1904); Dode, in MSm. Soc. Hist. Nat. Autun, xviii. 66 



(1905); Gambocz, in Math. Termes. Kdzl. xxx. 120 (1911). 

 Populus Fargesit, Franchet, in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, ii. 280 (1896). 



A tree, attaining in China about 60 ft. high. Young branchlets angled, more or 

 less covered with a loose pubescence, very short and yellowish on old trees. Buds 

 large, slightly viscid, with pubescent basal scales. Leaves (Plate 408, Fig. 9) 

 larger than in any other species, about 9 in. long and 6 in. broad, ovate, deeply 

 cordate at the base, with a gland-tipped acuminate apex ; margin revolute, glandular 

 and crenately serrate, the serrations uniform and regular throughout ; upper surface 

 with a dense pubescent tuft ^ at the base, elsewhere glabrescent ; lower surface pale 

 green, with a scattered tomentum, dense on the midrib and nerves, pseudo-five- or 

 seven-palminerved at the base ; petiole slightly tomentose, about one-third as long 

 as the blade, rounded with a groove above. 



Staminate catkins with numerous flowers on a short pubescent axis ; stamens 

 thirty to forty, on a thick slightly concave disc, which has a thin and lobed margin. 

 Fruiting catkins, 5 to 8 in. long, axis pubescent ; capsules two- to three- valved, 

 densely tomentose, shortly stalked, with a lobed glabrous disc. 



This remarkable species, which is closely allied to the North American P. 

 heterophylla^ was discovered by me in 1888, in the mountains of central China, 

 where it occurs in the provinces of Hupeh and Szechwan at 4000 to 6000 ft. 

 elevation. 



It was introduced by E. H. Wilson in 1904 into Veitch's nursery at Coombe 

 Wood, where it has proved perfectly hardy.^ It is worth cultivating on account of 

 its large handsome foliage. (A. H.) 



' On old trees this pubescent tuft covers two large glands, which appear to be absent on the leaves of young trees. 



* Populus heterophylla, Linnseus, Sp. PI. 1034 (17S3). This species (Plate 408, Fig. 10), which grows in swamps in 

 the United States, along the Atlantic coast and in the Mississippi valley, does not thrive in England, where we have seen no 

 living specimens. Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1672 (1838), mention's two plants at Syon and in the Mile End Nursery, 

 which, though over fifty years old, were only 5 or 6 ft. in height. According to Spath, Catalogue, No. gi, p. 51 (1893-1894), 

 it was not in cultivation on the Continent in 1893, but in that year he reintroduced it. Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. 

 Mitteleurop. Flora, iv. 52 (1908), state that it is grown in school gardens for the study of the flowere, which are borne on quite 

 small plants. 



' It was awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1908. Cf. Proc. R.H.S. xxxiv., p. ccxxi, 

 fig. Ill (1909). 



