Y0 

 ■ u &5& BULLETIN 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



OF STATEN ISLAND 



MARCH 1925 



THE GROVE OF BLACK POPLARS AT TOTTENVILLE 



by Wm. T. Davis 

 Staten Island, N. Y. 



About the year 1900 a poplar tree growing on the bluff at 

 Tottenville near the old Billopp House became an object of con- 

 siderable interest because it was decided that it was a Black 

 Poplar, Populus nigra L., a species introduced from Europe in 

 early colonial times and though often cultivated at the present 

 day, rare on Staten Island. The botanist Michaux supposed it to 

 be a native American tree and named it Populus hudsonica in 1810. 

 The species has spread gradually and is most plentiful in the 

 valley of the Hudson. 



Some authors regard the well known Lombardy Poplar, a 

 native of Asia, but long ago introduced into Europe, as a variety 

 of the Black Poplar, but more recent writers consider the two as 

 distinct. 



The upland close to the old poplar overhanging the bluff, has not 

 been cultivated for a number of years and shoots from the larger 

 tree have grown to many feet in height, so that, at present there 

 is a considerable grove of these trees that is well worth visiting. 

 This grove is mentioned in the Proceedings of the Staten Island 

 Association of Arts and Sciences, Feby. 1909. At that time the 

 trees were much smaller and it was supposed that the parent tree 

 would soon fall to the beach, as the bluff is gradually being wash- 

 ed away by the sea. The tree, however, still leans from the bluff 

 far out over the rocky shore, to which it seems at any time likely 

 to fall. Indeed some of the younger poplars, less securely rooted 

 than the parent tree, have already fallen to the shore below. 



MEMA. FOR MARCH 



Planting of hardy seeds or roots may be done after St. Patrick's Day if 

 the ground is dry. We caution the inexperienced not to get impatient and 

 begin to plant before the ground is dry (Henderson). 



Begin [digging] by selecting the warmest side of the garden, say against 

 a fence with a Southern exposure (J. C. Thompson, 1871). 



