POPLAR. 



[86] 



Family: AMENTACEAE. [Translator's note: now SALICACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: DIOECY, OCTANDRY. 



The white poplar, Populus alba, Linn., is a tree in our forests that grows very tall. 

 Its trunk is grayish and creviced, and its branches are covered with white down. Its leaves 

 are dentate, slightly triangular, dark green above, white and cottony underneath. The 

 flowers form oblong catkins. The male catkins have ten flowers with twelve to twenty 

 stamens under each scale. In the female flowers the ovary bears four stigmata and turns 

 into a capsule with two valves. There are very many seeds and they have a silken tuft. 



FLOWERS: at the end of winter or in early spring. 



RANGE: France and Europe. 



NOMENCLATURE, Populus, the people's tree, because in ancient Rome public 

 places were decorated with them. The white poplar was consecrated to Hercules, Populus 

 Alcidae gratissima, Virg., etc., because he is said to have returned from the shores of the 

 Acheron with his brow wreathed in a crown of white poplar [Translator's note: the 

 poplar in gratitude to the grandson ofAlcaeus, an epithet of Hercules. The Acheron is 

 one of the rivers that surround Hades]. Crowns of poplar leaves were worn during 

 bacchanalia. German, pappel-baum. English, poplar-tree. 



The Italian poplar, Populus fastigiata, Poir.. is a tree that grows in a pyramidal 

 shape and is easy to distinguish by its habit which is very different from all of our other 

 trees. Its leaves are almost triangular, dentate, smooth, and a beautiful green. The male 

 flowers grow in pendent catkins. We have no female specimens, presumably because this 

 tree, already very common, always has been propagated from suckers and from cuttings. 



FLOWERS: in early spring. 



RANGE: It was obtained from Italy, but since it's not very widespread 



