POPLAR (OF. poplier, peuplier, Fr. peuplier, from people, poplar, from Lat. populus, poplar), Nith's. A genus of trees, forming with wil lows the natural order Salicace;P. The species number about 20, chiefly natives of the temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere, half of them occurring in the United States. They are large trees of rapid growth, with soft wood, and usually have broad, heart-shaped, ovate triangular or lozenge-shaped, deciduous leaves, on rather long stalks. Many of them are beauti ful. The catkins appear long before the leaves, breaks and shade in the prairie regions of the West they are also popular. The wood is ex tensively employed in making wood pulp, paper, etc. Besides the species known by the name aspen (q.v.) or tremulous poplar, the following seem the most worthy of notice: The white pop lar or abele (Populus alba), a native of Southern Europe, is a tree of SO feet or upward, with a fine spreading head, and roundish. heart-shaped, lobed, and toothed leaves, which are smooth. shining. and dark green above. downy and sil very white beneath. It has been introduced into the United States and has spread from New Brunswick to Pennsylvania. The wood is used by cabinet-makers, turners, and toy-makers. It is little liable to swell or shrink, which adapts it to these purposes. The gray poplar. which is a form of Populus alba, is very similar to the white poplar, a large spreading tree with leaves similar to those of the white poplar. but not so dark green above nor so white beneath. It is of less rapid growth than the white poplar and its wood, which is believed to be harder and better, makes good flooring, and is preferable to pine and proceed from distinct lateral buds. Few of the poplars are of much value for their timber, which is generally white, soft, and light but from their rapid growth they are useful as yield ing firewood where the scarcity of other fuel renders necessary the planting of trees for this purpose. They are often planted as ornamental trees, since they produce an immediate effect of embellishment in a bare situation more readily than almost any other kind of tree. For wind for the neighborhood of fireplaces, being less apt to take fire. It is also used for coarse doors, carts. barrows. etc., and, not being liable to warp. is esteemed by wood-carvers. The tree generally begins to rot in the heart when forty or fifty years old. Like most of the other poplars, it fills the ground with suckers. The black poplar (Populus nigra), a native of most parts of Europe, is a tree of 50 to 100 feet high, with an ample spreading head, viscous leaf-buds. and deltoid or
unequally quadrangular. perfectly smooth leaves. It has become introduced and well es tablished in the valleys of the lhalson and Dela ware• rivers and elsewhere. The wood is used for the same purposes as that of the white and gray poplars. The cotton from the seeds has been used in France and Germany for making cloth hats and paper. lint these uses of it were not found profitable. The Lombardy poplar (Poped as vigra, var. naiica, sometimes called Populus fastioiata and Populus difitata) is a variety of the black poplar, with erect instead of spreading branches, which appears to have been introduced into Europe from the East, is very common in the Punjab and in Persia, and now also in Lombardy and other parts of Italy. It attains a height of 100 or even 150 feet. and is remarkable for its erect form. contracted head. and very rapid growth. It is sometimes planted as an ornamental tree. Owing to extensive plant ing during the latter part of the eighteenth cen tury and the early years of the nineteenth, the tree is a very common one in Europe and America. The balsam poplar or tacamahae(Popfaus ba lsam firm) , a common ornamental tree, is a native of both North America and Siberia. has viscid lea f buds and whitish, ovate-oblong leaves, which in spring are of a delicate yellow tint, and have an agreeable fragrance. The erect fastigiate manner of growth approaches that of the Lombardy pop lar. The cottonwood (Populus deltoides or mon ilifera), frequently planted for ornament, is the largest of the poplars, specimens 150 feet high and 7 feet in diameter being not uncommon in moist soil along rivers and lakes. It abounds from Quebec to the Northwest Territory, and south to Florida and New In Europe it is also known as the black Italian poplar and Canadian poplar. In the Western States the tree is planted for fuel and for its timber, which is considered valuable. Populus heterophylla, the swamp poplar, is common from New York to Georgia and west to Arkansas and Texas. It is a tree 80 feet high and has very large cordate leaves. There are a number of other American species, which differ mostly in size of tree and shape of the leaves.
Fossil poplar leaves are known in the Cretaceous rocks of Greenland, and are common in most plant-bearing beds of the Tertiary, differing little from the modern species.