L OMBARDY POPLAR (Poputus nigra, Linn., variety Italica). 13 to 60 feet. Tall, narrowly pyramidal tree of short, ascend ing branches from the ground, covering the stout, often ir regularly lobed trunk. Bark rough, dark gray, scaly, swollen, with excrescences. Wood soft, compact, sometimes used as fuel. Leaves shining, ovate, long-pointed, serrate, on slim petioles. Flowers in catkins, dicemous, pendulous, in early spring. Fruits clustered capsules, opening to free the minute, hairy seeds. Dist.: Extensively planted along roadsides all
over the Eastern and Prairie States. An ornamental set to accent the spires and towers of buildings, and add contrast to round-topped trees. A valuable tree, with one grievous fau't — its branches die from overcrowding, and these dead ones persist, so that the tree is rarely good-looking after its youth passes,