SWAMP COTTONWOOD 
autumn they turn a clear bright yellow. Petiole slender, laterally 
compressed, one and a half to two and one-half inches long. Stip- 
ules caducous. 
Flowers.— April, borne in pendulous aments, one and a half to two 
and a half inches long, from buds formed the season before. The 
one-flowered scales are deeply divided into five or six acute lobes, 
with soft light gray hairs which also cover the disk. Stamens from 
six to twelve, inserted on a shallow oblique disk with entire margin ; 
filaments short, slender; anthers light red. Ovary oblong-conical, 
light green, hairy ; style short ; stigmas spreading, divided into fili- 
form lobes. The ovary enclosed in the persistent disk. 
Fruit.—Oblong, curved capsule, light green, thin-walied, hairy, 
two-valved, one-eighth inch long, borne on a drooping ament four to 
five inches long. Seed minute, dark brown, surrounded by rather 
short, snowy white hairs. May. 
The Large-toothed Aspen is gregarious, loves to grow in 
thickets ; its leaves twinkle on the gravelly hill-side or along 
the river-bottom ; it ripens its long, drooping, necklace-like 
aments in May as its leaves unfold and in every particular 
proves itself a poplar. 
The high-sounding name, P. grandidentata, means simply 
that the teeth of the leaf margin are a little larger than those 
of P. tremuloides. 
SWAMP COTTONWOOD. BLACK COTTONWOOD. 
DOWNY POPLAR 
Pépulus heterophylla. 
Rare in New England, common in the south Atlantic states, abun- 
dant in the lower Mississippi valley. Loves low wet land. In the 
north is a tree forty feet high, with a rather round-topped head, 
its maximum height is ninety feet. 
Bark.—On old trees, light brown tinged with red, often broken 
into long narrow plates attached only at the middle ; on young trees 
divided by narrow shallow fissures into flat ridges. Branchlets con- 
tain an orange-colored pith, at first are dark red brown or ashy gray, 
later much darker and roughened by leaf scars. 
Wood.—Dull brown, sapwood lighter brown ; light, soft and close- 
grained. Is now often manufactured into lumber in the west and 
south and used in interior finish of buildings. Sp. gr., 0.4089; 
weight of cu. ft., 25.48 lbs. 
Ala 
