POPLAR TREE. There are several va rieties of poplar tree, which render useful ser vice to man, though not in so great a degree as many other trees. The timber of the white poplar is very light coloured, and is used in France and Germany for a variety of minor purposes. It makes excellent packing cases, because nails may be driven into it without causing it to split. It is used extensively by turners and cabinet-makers. The boards and rollers around which pieces of silk are wrapped in merchant's warehouses and in shops are made of this wood, which is adopted on account of its lightness lessening the expense of freight. It is much used for flooring-boards, for large folding-doors for barns, and for other building purposes. It is used as a substitute for lime tree in musical instruments. Wooden dishes and casks are occasionally made of it. The timber of black poplar is used for much the same purposes as the white. It is yellow, soft, and easy to work ; and is preferred by cabinet-makers for many purposes. It is used for clogs, the soles of wooden shoes, bowls and other turner's ware, and in cart building. The Lombardy poplar produces wood less ser viceable than that from the other varieties ; but rafters, small beams, boards, &e., made of this wood and afterwards coated with tar, are found to be durable. The wood of the Trembling poplar or Aspen is white and tender; and is employed by turners; by coopers for herring casks, milk pails, &c.; by sculptors and engravers; by joiners and cabinet-makers; and by the makers of clogs, wooden shoes, butcher's trays, pack saddles, and a number of other articles.
As fuel, poplar wood is of inferior heating power; but it gives out its heat very quickly; the ovens of nearly all the Paris bakers are heated by this wood. The bark of the black poplar is employed in tanning leather; when pulverised it is eaten by sheep ; and being very thick, light, and corky, it is used by fishermen to support their nets, and even as corks for bottles. The bark of the aspen forms the principal food of the beaver; it is also usefully employed in medicine.
In Sweden the leaves of the white poplar are eaten by cattle. The buds of the black poplar, macerated in boiling water, and after wards bruised in a mortar and pressed, yield a fat substance which burns like wax and ex hales a fine odour. The balsamic sap with ...which the buds are covered forms the basis of an ointment which was much prized in former times. The young shoots may be used in basket-making ; and the shoots with the leaves on are sometimes used as brooms. The cottony substance or flock which surrounds the seed has been used in Germany and France as wadding ; and it has also been occasionally manufactured into cloths, hats, and paper. The Balsam poplar yields a balsam from the buds ; it is collected from the trees in spring, at which season it collects into drops on the points of the buds. In Siberia a medicated wine is prepared from the buds.