Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. I 
NO. 12 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. JULY 9, 1915 
Pyramidal Trees. Several of the species of trees of the northern 
hemisphere have produced individuals with erect growing branches 
which give them an abnormal fastigiate habit. Such trees are inter- 
esting in illustrating the variation in habit of trees, and several of 
them are valuable when used with discretion to produce certain effects 
in decorative planting. The best known of these trees is the Lom- 
bardy Poplar, a form of the Black Poplar of Europe ( Populus nigra 
var. italica). Some authors have supposed that this tree originated in 
one of the countries of western Asia, but it is now more generally be- 
lieved that it sprang up in northern Italy early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. The trees are all males and have all been propagated from cut- 
tings; and it is not improbable that all of these trees now scattered 
over a large part of the world are descended from a single individual. It 
is a very hardy, fast-growing tree, and is able to adapt itself to very dif- 
ferent climatic conditions. Nowhere perhaps can such fine specimens be 
seen as are now growing in the central valley of Chile, and it is 
equally at home in all parts of North America. The Lombardy Poplar 
is a great favorite with some members of the younger school of Amer- 
ican landscape gardeners, but fortunately in this part of the country 
it often suffers severely from the attacks of a borer so that it is not 
probable that large trees will ever become too common here. There 
is also a fastigiate form of the Silver Poplar of Europe and western 
Asia (Populus alba, var. pyrannidalis, but better known as P. Bolleana). 
This tree is a native of central Asia but has become common in the 
United States and Europe in the forty years since it was first sent to 
Germany. It is as fastigiate in habit as the Lombardy Poplar, and 
has the advantage over it in the greater variation, shape and color of 
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