164 Exptiiition to the 



portions of the low grounds. The foliage of the most com- 

 mon species of willow, (S. angustata^ is of a light green 

 colour, and when seen under certain angles, of a silvery gray, 

 contrasting beautifully with the intense and vivid green of the 

 cotton-wood.* Within a few rods of the spot where we halt- 

 ed to dine, we were so fortunate as to find a small log canoe, 

 made fast on shore. From its appearance, we were assured 

 it had been some months deserted by its rightful owner, 



* This tree, the Populus angulata of Pursh, has received its com- 

 mon name from the downy cotton like appendage to the seed, which 

 being ripened and shed in Mayor the beginning of June, is then seen 

 floating in the air in great quantities, and often proves somewhat trouble- 

 some to the eyes and noses of persons, who are much in the open air. Ba- 

 ron Humboldt, in speaking of tlie Unona aromatica of South America, 

 says, " its branches are straight, and rise in a pyramid, nearly like those 

 of the poplar of the Mississippi, falsely called lombardy poplar." Pers. 

 Nar. p. 163, Vol. 5. As far as our observation has extended, the poplar 

 most common in the country of the Mississippi, and indeed almost the 

 only one which occurs, is the angulata^ very distinct from the P. dilatata, 

 the lombardy poplar of our streets and yards, which is not a native of this 

 country. The branches of the cotton-wood tree are not very numerous, 

 particularly where it occurs in forests, as is the case on the Mississippi, 

 below the confluence of the Missouri, and in the alluvial lands of most of 

 the rivers in the United States, and show less tendency to arrange them- 

 selves in a pyramidal form, than ihose of almost any other tree. In the 

 open country west of the Mississippi, where in the distance of one hun- 

 dred miles, some dozens of scattered cotton-wood trees may be found; 

 their tops are peculiarly low and straggling, as is the case with indi- 

 viduals of the same species, which have grown in open fields, and by the 

 road sides in various places. 



This tree is perhaps as widely distributed, as any indigenous to North 

 America, extending at least from Canada to Louisiana, and from the At- 

 lantic to the lower part of Columbia river- It is, however, so peculiarly 

 frequent in every part of the country, watered by ihe Mississippi audits 

 tributaries, that it may with as little absurdity, as usually attends names 

 referring to locality, be called the Mississippi poplar. It is probuble, that 

 nearly one half of the whole number of trees, in the recent alluvial grounds 

 or bottom lands of the Mississippi and its tributaries, are of this species. 

 Whether it vvas considered by Humboldt, as identical with the lombardj 

 poplar of our streets, we cannot decide. 



The cotton-wood varies in magnitude, in proportion to the fertility of 

 the soil, and on the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Arkansa, it attains the 

 size of our largest forest trees. It is sometimes exceeded in girth, and in 

 the number and extent of its branches, by the majestic sycamore, but in 

 forests where the two are intermixed, as is commonly the case, it is seen 

 to overtop all other trees. 



A cotton-wood tree mentioned in the Journal of the Exploring Party, 

 who ascended Red river in ,806, and spoken of as one of many similar 

 trees,, standing in a cornfield, three or four days journey above Natchito- 



