116 
CAROLINIAN POPLAR 
Poplar are short, of a deep green, and destitute of the resinous, aromatic 
substance which covers those of the Cotton Wood, and of which the ves- 
tiges remain till late in the season. 
The wood of the Carolinian Poplar is white, soft, and considered as unfit 
for use in its native country. This stately tree was introduced many years 
ago into Europe, where it is justly esteemed as an ornamental vegetable 
by the amateurs of foreign plants. In the climate of Paris its terminal 
branches are liable, in rigorpus seasons, to be destroyed by the frost. 
In the North American Flora, my father has confounded the Carolinian 
Poplar and the Cotton Wood. The two species agree in ? the angular form 
of their trunk, but they differ in other respects, which I have particularly 
mentioned. 
PLATE XCIV. 
A leaf of the natural size from, the middle of a large tree. Fig. 1, Apm-tion of 
an annual shoot. Fig. 2, Apiece of the hark from a branch of the third year. 
j^All the species of Poplar are deciduous trees, mostly growing rapidly 
and to a large size ; the Poplar is dioecious, and the' catkins of the males of 
most of the species are very ornamental from the red tinge of their anthers, 
and from their being produced very early in the spring, when the trees are 
leafless. The females of all the species have their seeds enveloped in 
abundance of cottony down ; this, when ripe, and the seeds are shed, 
adheres to every object near it, and is so like cotton wool in appearance 
and quality, that it has been manufactured into cloth and paper. The 
tremulous motion of the leaves, which is common in a greater or less de- 
gree, to all the poplars, proceeds from the great length of the petioles in 
proportion to the size and weight of the leaves to which they are attached. 
The Poplars are all readily propagated by cuttings or layers, and some of 
them by suckers ; they all like a moist soil, particularly when it is near a 
running stream, but none of them thrive in marshy or undried soil. On 
very dry ground the leaves of the Poplars grow yellow, and fall off much 
sooner than when they are planted in a more congenial soil ; from their 
rapid growth and great bulk they are liable to have their branches broken 
off by the wind, when the rain enters, and the trunk soon rots and becomes 
the prey of insects. 
See Nuttall’s Supplement, vol. 1, p. 51, et seq.] 
