THE WHITE POPLAR. 



63 



main stem is free of branches, an important advantage. Although the seeds 

 are common, fertile seeds are not so easy to obtain ; and, although we have 

 visited many woods containing White Poplars, we never yet met with one that 

 had been replanted by natural sowing, which is probably owing to our country 

 being situated towards the northern limit of the tree's range. 



" There is a divergency of opinion among authors in regard to the natural 

 distribution of the White Poplar. According to Mouillefert it includes Eng- 

 land, Denmark, the south of Sweden up to 6 1 degrees latitude, and Russia up to 

 55 degrees, including the Siberian Urals. On the other hand, it is considered 

 by Hempel and Wilhelm not to be indigenous except to the southern half of 

 Europe and the East. The Rhine plain, the upper and middle Danube, and the 

 Hungarian plain, form, according to these authorities, the northern limits of the 

 tree's range. It is essentially a tree of the south, and, though enduring well the 

 cold of our hardest winters, only attains to its best dimensions in cool tempe- 

 rate climates, notably in the valley of the Danube. It loves valleys and moist 

 plains, and on the mountains of even southern Europe is never seen at a higher 

 altitude than 2,000 to 3,000 feet. 



" The White Poplar is exacting in regard to soil, which, to suit it, should be 

 deep and moist. It loves best alluvial soils, the neighbourhood of waterways, and 

 the bottoms of slopes. It will not grow well in marsh soils that have been drained, 

 and in sandy, dry, or poor soils it is ill at ease and stunted in its growth. 



" Given favourable conditions, the growth of the White Poplar is rapid and 

 sustained. Its life extends over several centuries. A forty-year-old tree may 

 measure 5 to 6i feet round the stem, and 80 to 100 feet high. In 1886 or 1887 

 we planted some trees in a valley ; eleven years after many of these trees measured 

 between 27 and 28 inches round the stem at a height of 5 feet 8 inches. The 

 forest of Soignes and the wood of la Cambre contain numbers of White Poplars 

 measuring 8 feet and more round the stems and 1 10 to 120 feet high. Mathieu, 

 in his Flore Forestiere, gives an instance of a White Poplar growing at St. Julien, 

 near Troyes, which measured about 100 feet high and 24 feet round at 41 feet 

 from the ground, and was still in full vigour. 



" The White Poplar loves the light and suffers if overshadowed by other trees. 

 It likes to have its head free ; so the culture that suits it best is over underwood. 

 Set in young cuttings as a long-stemmed plant it rises quickly above the under- 

 wood and soon outgrows most other trees in the plantation. The tops of fine 

 grown trees are seen from afar, and seem proud of their strength and lofty stature. 

 Thanks to this quickness of growth and to a full, if somewhat light, foliage, the 

 White Poplar does not oppress the underwood, and for this reason it is one of 

 the most valuable trees for wood-land. 



" The root system begins with a tap root, and after some years numerous long 

 roots are developed. They are much on the surface, and readily give out suckers. 



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