364 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
one hundred and fifty feet. There is a noble old specimen north 
of the Casino, in the New York Central Park, which exhibits all 
the beauties.and faults of the species. 
There are many other species and varieties of poplars which 
are not distinguished by peculiarities or merits that make it desira¬ 
ble to enumerate them. 
THE \\ HITE WOOD OR TULIP TREE. Liriodendro7i 
tulipifera. 
A tree of lofty stature, straight and erect trunk, and exceeding 
beauty of foliage. In its early growth the beauty of its leaves, 
which are of singular form, their unusual 
purity of color and perfect texture, and the 
smooth and symmetric growth of the trunk 
and branches, all combine to form an ele¬ 
gant tree. Yet its head does not usually 
break into such dense masses of verdure as 
those of the maples, the horse-chestnuts, 
and the hickories. Fig. 113 shows a re¬ 
markably pretty specimen of a whitewood, 
about twenty years old, and gives the forms 
of the leaves, flowers, and seed-vessels. As 
it becomes an old tree, the branches bend 
in downward sweep, rising at their extrem¬ 
ities, and tending somewhat to unequal 
lengths, form an outline at once irregu¬ 
lar and symmetrical, lofty and graceful. The play of light and 
shade among the openings of its boughs is similar in expres¬ 
sion to that which Loudon (as quoted on page 385) has char- 
acteiized in describing the foliage of the European plane tree ; 
though that of the whitewood forms into somewhat more rounded 
masses. The leaves burst their buds about a week later than 
those of the sugar maple. They are from five to eight inches 
in width, and of a peculiarly square form, as will be seen from 
the above cut. In texture and color they are of that perfect type 
Fig. i i 3. 
