24 
POPLAR OR TULIP TREE. 
that the cellular tissue of the bark, and particularly that of the roots, ex- 
hales in summer a nauseous odor, so strong as to occasion sickness if it is 
long respired in confined air. 
This tree has bloomed in Europe for many years ; but it rarely fructifies, 
and is principally esteemed for the beauty of its flowers and of its foliage. 
PLATE LX. 
A branch ivitli leaves and flowers of the natural size. Fig. I, Fruit of the 
natural size and color. Fig. 2, A stone separated from the pulp. 
POPLAR on TULIP TREE. 
Lvkiodendrum tuiipifera. L. foliis trilolris ; lobo medio truncato ; calice 
triphyllo. 
Magnoliaceæ. Jus. 
This tree, which surpasses most others of North America in height and 
in the beauty of its foliage and of its flowers, is also one of the most inter- 
esting from the numerous and useful applications of its wood. Wherever 
it abounds, and throughout the greater part of the United States, it is called 
Poplar. In Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, it is known by the 
name of White Wood, and of Canoe Wood, and more rarely, by that of 
Tulip Tree. This last denomination, which, since the introduction of the 
tree, has been adopted in Europe, is certainly the most proper, because 
the flower nearly resembles the tulip, and because the tree bears in none 
of its characters any analogy to the Poplars, which are in every respect 
inferior to it. But the name of Poplar has become so generally sanctioned 
by use in the United States, that I have not felt at liberty to change it, and 
have only annexed the other as a synonym, with a feeble hope of its ulti- 
mately prevailing. 
The southern extremity of Lake Champlain, in latitude 45°, may be 
be considered as the northern limit, and the Connecticut river, in the lon- 
gitude of 72°, as the eastern limit of the Tulip Tree. It is only beyond 
the Hudson, which flows two degrees further west, and below the 43? of 
latitude, that it is frequently met with and fully developed. Its expansion 
is not here repressed, as in Vermont and the upper part of Connecticut, by 
*! 
