1650

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III

shoots and leaves had been protruded from thisplant, and been blackened by frost; while in Ptremula and P. canadensis the leaf buds were mostof them unchanged from their appearance in winter.

Michaux states that, in America, the Americanaspen blossoms about the 20th of April, and thatthe leaves appear in ten days or a fortnight after-wards. He describes the leaves as small whencompared with those of other poplars, and as beingthrown into agitation by the gentlest breath of air.

The catkins are composed of silky plumes, which arependulous, and protruded from the extremity of theshoots. The bracteas of the male flowers are of adark chestnut colour, but are fringed with whitehairs. The perianth is white. The anthers arenumerous, and deep brown ; the pollen is whiteThe bark is smooth. The wood, according to Bige-low, is light, fine, soft, and perishable; and thebark is used as a febrifuge. In the United States, it is scarcely applied toany useful purpose; though Michaux was informed that it had beensuccessfully divided into very thin laminae, for the fabrication of women’shats; and that these hats were, for a short time, fashionable in severaltowns of the United States. Among the Cree Indians, the wood is esteemedto burn better, in a green state, than that of any other tree in the country.( Franklin's first Journ., p. 753.) In Britain, this tree is in several col-lections, but is not very common : we believe it to be only a variety ofthe European P. tremula. Plants, in the London nurseries, are 2s. 6 d.each; and at New York, 20 cents.

If 5. P. (t.) grandidenta'ta Mich. r. The large-toothed-Zeomf Poplar,or North American large Aspen.

Identification. Michx. FI. Bor. Amex., 2. p. 243.; Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 2. p. 243. t. 99. f. 2.;

Pursh FI. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 619.; Spreng. Syst., 2. p. 244.

Engravings. Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 2. t. 99. f. 2.; and our fig. 1511.

The Sexes. The female is represented in Michaux’s figure. The plants in the Horticultural Society’sGarden have not yet flowered.

Spec. Char., $c. Leaf, when young, villous, afterwards glabrous on bothsurfaces; the petiole compressed in the terminal part; the disk roundish-ovate, acute, sinuately toothed with large unequal teeth. ( Pursh andMichx. sen.) Wild in Canada, and atree, 40 ft. or 50 ft. high, with a trunk10 in. or 12 in. in diameter. The full-formed disk of the leaf is nearly round,and 2 in. or 3 in. in width. (Michx. jun.)

P. grandidentata is occasionally met within the American woods, but is much lesscommon than P. trepida. It is easilydistinguished from the various cultivatedkinds of poplar, by the large unequalindentations of the margins of the leaves.

The leaves, as Michaux observes, arecovered, when young, with a white down,which disappears as they grow older. Inmany instances, the disk is furnishedwith a pair of glands at the base. Thecatkins appear in May, and are 2 in. or3 in. long. The wood is much like thatof P. trepida. (Bigelow’s Account of “ ThePlants of Boston and its Vicinity in 1824,”p. 369, 370.) There are plants of this