OF FOREST-TREES. 



209 



liospitalem) is the most ordinary with us, to be raised in abundance by cHAP. XV. 

 every set or slip. Fence the ground as far as any old Poplar-roots extend, '^-'^'Y'^^ 

 and they will furnish you with suckers innumerable, to be slipped from 

 their mothers, and transplanted the very first year ; but if you cut down 

 an old tree, you shall need no other nursery. When they are young, 

 their leaves are somewhat broader and rounder, as most other trees are, 

 than when they grow aged. In moist and boggy places they will flourish 

 wonderfully, so the ground be not spewing ; but especially near the 



margins and banks of rivers, \_Populus in Jluviis ] and in ]ow, sweet, 



and fertile grounds, yea, and in the drier likewise. Truncheons of seven 



. The flowers of the Poplar are male and female, on distinct plants, and the male flowers 

 have eight stamina, which show that it belongs to the class and order Dioecia Octandria. 

 Both the male and female flowers are arranged into an amentum. In the beginning of AprU 

 they make their appearance ; though the Aspen-flowers will be full blown by the twenty- 

 second of March. The male flowers appear first, and the female about a week after. 

 The catkins are about three inches long. Soon after the female flowers come out, the 

 males drop off; and in about five or six weeks the female will have ripe seeds, which are 

 dispersed by the winds to a considerable distance. 



The propagation of the Poplar-tree is very easy. It will grow from cuttings, suckers, 

 and truncheons ; though I by no means approve of the planting of truncheons, as often 

 practised on boggy places ; because I have always observed, that plantations of these 

 luxuriant trees, attempted to be raised in this manner, have been frequently stocked ; and 

 that the most promising trees have never equalled, in goodness or beauty, such as had been 

 raised in the nursery. 



In order, tlierefore, to obtain a quantity of Poplars, proper to be planted in avenues or 

 clumps, by the sides of rivulets, bogs, or any other places where they are desired, you must 

 get a piece of ground double dug for the nursery. If the trees are intended for a watery 

 situation, this nursery-ground should be pretty near it ; but if they are designed for pasture- 

 grounds, fields, or such as have no more than a common degree of moisture, the soil of the 

 nursery should be proportionably drier. 



Spring is the best season for planting the cuttings ; though they will grow if planted in 

 any of the winter months. They should all be vigorous shoots of the last year, or at least 

 not older than two years. These cuttings should be one foot and a half in length ; and 

 must be planted in the nursery-ground in rows, a yard asunder, and at a foot and a half 

 distant from each other in the rows. They should be planted a foot in the ground, and 

 the other part should remain above, to send forth the leading shoot. Now, in order to 

 have one leading shoot only, the plant should be carefull}' looked over in summer, and all 

 young side-branches nipped off*, in order to encourage the leading branch. After this, no 

 farther care need be taken of them than keeping them clean of weeds, and digging between 

 the rows in winter, till they have attained a proper size to plant out for good, which will 



Volume I. LI 



