CHAP, cm.
SALICA'cEiE. Po'pULUS.
1657
40ft., with a trunk 12 in. or ]5in. in diameter; foundby Michaux on the banks of the river Hudson, a littleabove Albany; and by Pursh about Lake Ontario .
Judging from the plants in the collection of Messrs.
Loddiges, and Michaux’s figure, we have no doubtwhatever of its being, like P. canadensis, merely a varietyof P. nigra. It is, however, tolerably distinct; and, beinga small, neat, deep-green-leaved tree, well deserves aplace in collections.
Statistics. In England, in Devonshire, at Endsleigh Cottage, 16 yearsplanted, it is .*30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 14in., and of the head12 ft.; in Buckinghamshire , at Temple House, 40 years planted, it is 60 ft.high, the diameter of the trunk-2 ft., and of the head 30 ft. Price of plantsthe same as in P. canadensis.
i 10. P. monili'fera Ail. The Necklace -bearing, or black Italian,
Identification. Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 1., 3. p. 406.; Willd. Arb., 232., Sp. PI., 4. p. 805.; Pursh FI.Amer. Sept, 2. p. 618.; Wats. Dend. Brit., 1.102.
Synonymes. P. virgini^na Lin., JDesf. Hort. Par., Bum. Bot. Cult., tom. 6. p. 400., Nouv. Coursd'Agri., tom. xi. p._407.; P. glanduldsa Mcench Meth ., p. 339.; P. carolin£nsis Moench Weissenst, 81.,Burgsd. Anleit., 378.; P. nigra italica Lodd. Cat., edit. 1836 ; P. nigra americhna Ibid. ; P. acla-desca Lindt, in Enc. of Plants s p. 840. j ? P. marylandica Bose Nouv. Cours, art. Peuplier , p. 409. ;Virginian Poplar, Swiss Poplar, Canadian, or Berry-bearing, Poplar , Mill. •, Peuplier Suisse, Peupliertriphilon (see Nouv. Cours), Peuplier de Virginie, Dumont.
Derivation. The epithet necklace-bearing alludes to the shape of the female catkins, which in theircapsules, and the manner in which these are attached to the rachis, resemble strings of beads.Swiss poplar, and black Italian poplar, allude to the tree being very abundant in Switzerland andthe north of Italy .
The Sexes. Both sexes are frequent in British collections, but the male is most abundant Both arein the London Horticultural Society’s Garden. The female is figured and described by Watson(see Bend. Brit., t. 102.), who has figured some parts of the male flower in the same plate. Boseremarks that only the male is cultivated in French gardens.
Engravings. Michx. Arb., t. 10. f. 2. j N. Amer. Syl., 2. t. 96. f. 2.; Wats. Dend. Brit., 2. 1.102.;our fig. 1517. j and the plates of this tree in our last Volume.
Spec. Char., S,c. Shoot more or less angular. Branch round. Petioleslender, compressed in the upper part; in some leaves, shorter than thedisk, in others longer. Disk deltoid, glanded at the base, which is sub-cordate in some leaves, and very obtusely wedge-shaped in others; tipacute; edge serrated all round, except in the central part of the base, andat the acute tip, the teeth have incurved points; glabrous, except in theedge, which, at least when the leaf is growing, is ciliate; edge ultimately,and perhaps early, gristly. Male flowers about 30. in a catkin, upon pe-dicels. Bractea glabrous. Stamens 16, a little longer than the corolla.Female flowers about 40 in a catkin. Stigmas 4, dilated, jagged. (Pursh,Wats., Michx., Spreng., and obs.) It is rather doubtful to what countrythis poplar is indigenous; Canada is given as its native country in theHortus Kewensis; but, in the Nouveau Du Hamel, it is stated to be a nativeof Virginia . Michaux, jun., states that neither he nor his father ever foundit wild in America ; and Pursh adds that he has only seen it in thatcountry m gardens. According to the Hortus Kewensis, it was introducedinto Britain by Dr. John Hope, in 1772. It is a tree, according to Pursh,hom 60 ft. to 70 ft. high in America; but in Britain it grows to the heightof 100 ft. or 120 ft., or upwards ; flowering in March, and ripening its seedsabout the middle of May.
Varieties.
® -P- m - 2 Lindleyaxia, Booth ; the new waved-leaved Poplar , Hort. ; hasrather larger leaves than the species, and they are somewhat moreundulated. The plant in the London Horticultural Society’s Gar-p den is 13 ft. high.
P. 3 foliis variegatis Hort. — The tree in the Horticultural Society’s
Garden is between 30 ft. and 40ft. high; but its variegation is byno means conspicuous, except in early spring.
and > -f SCr ^i <,,! ’ ■ fc ‘ mon 'hfera is the most rapid-growing of all the poplars;
1 s tlm her is equal, if not superior, in quality to that of any other species.