770 



Handbook of N ature-Stiidy 



11. Do you find willow cones on your willows? Cut one of these cones 

 through and see if you can find any seeds? What is in the middle of it? 

 What do you think made the scales of the cone ? Do you think this little 

 insect remains in here all winter? 



12. In winter, hunt the lower branches of willows for leaves rolled 

 lengthwise making a winter cradle for the young caterpillars of the viceroy. 



Supplementary reading — Trees in Prose and Poetry, p. 137. 



THE COTTONWOOD, OR CAROLINA POPLAR 



Teacher's Story 

 HE sojourner on our western plains where streams 

 are few and sluggish, disappearing entirely in 

 summer, soon learns to love the cottonwoods, 

 for they will grow and cast their shade for men 

 and cattle where no other tree could endure. 

 The Cottonwood may be unkempt and ragged, 

 but it is a tree, and we are grateful to it for its 

 ability to grow in unfavorable situations. In 

 the Middle West it attains its perfection, al- 

 though in New York we have some superb 

 specimens — trees which are more than one 

 hundred feet in height and with majestic 

 trunks, perhaps five or six feet through. The deep-furrowed, pale gray 

 bark makes a handsome covering. The trunk divides into great out-swing- 

 ing, widely spaced branches, which bear a fine spray on their drooping ends. 

 Sargent declares that at its best the Cottonwood is one of the statliest in- 

 habitants of our eastern forests. The variety we plant in cities we call the 

 Carolina poplar, but it is a cottonwood. It is a rapid grower, and therefore 

 a great help to the "boom towns" of the West and to the boom suburbs in 

 the East; although for a city tree its weak branches break too readily in 

 wind storms in old age. However, it keeps its foliage clean, the varnished 

 leaves shedding the dust and smoke ; because of this latter quality it is of 

 special use in towns that bum soft coal. 



The cottonwood twigs which we gather for study in the spring are 

 yellowish or reddish, those of last year's growth being smooth and round, 

 while those showing previous growth are angular. The buds are red-brown 

 and shining, and covered with resin which the bees like to collect for their 

 glue. The leaf buds are slender and sharp-pointed; the flower buds are 

 wider and plumper. 



The two sexes of the flowers are borne on separate trees. The trees 

 bearing pollen catkins are so completely covered with them that they 

 take on a very furry, purplish appearance when in blossom. These catkins 

 are from three to five inches long and half an inch thick, looking fat and 

 pendulous ; each fringed scale of the catkin has at its base a disc looking 

 like a white bracket, from which hang the reddish purple anthers; these 

 catkins fall after the pollen is shed and look like red caterpillars upon the 

 ground. 



The seed-bearing flowers are very different ; they look like a string of 

 little, greenish beads loosely strung. Each pistil is globular and set in a 

 tiny cup. and it has thi-ee or four stigmas which are widened or lobed; as 



