P O P U L U S a lb a .
Great White Poplar, or Abele.
DIO EC I A Octandria,
Gen. Char. _ Male, Cal. the scales of a catkin, tom.
Cor. turbinate, oblique, entire. Stam. 8 or more.
Female, Cal. and Cor. like the male. Stigmas 4
or 8. Caps, superior, with 2 cells and 2 valves.
Seeds downy.
Spec. Char. Leaves roundish, somewhat heart-shaped,
lobed and toothed; downy and very white beneath.
Female catkins ovate. Stigmas four.
Syn. Populus alba, Linn. Sp. P i. 1463. Sm. FI.
B rit. 1079. Huds. 433. With. 375. Hull. 221.'
Relh. 390. Sibth. 126. Abbot. 215. Rightf. 616,
Raii Syn. 446. Ehrh. Arh. 120.
P. major. M ill. D iet. ed. 8, n. 4,
■vr
. O T uncommon in rather moist woods and hedges, or even
m mountainous places at some distance from water. The
catkins are produced in March, the leaves fully expanded in
M a y or June. r
Root creeping, throwing up abundance o f suckers. Stem
forming a large tree, with a smooth bark, and horizontal
spreading branches. Leaves alternate; on longish downy
stalks, roundish, bluntish, heartshaped at the base, more or
less deeply cut into rather acute lobes, and variously toothed •
dark-green, smooth and veiny above, thickly clothed with
snow-white cottony down beneath, especially in mountainous
or open places. On young and luxuriant branches the leaves
are almost palmate. Stipulas on the young branches, linear-
lanceolate, toothed. Male catkins cylindrical, with palmate
jagged, hairy scales. Antheras violet-coloured, about 8 or
12, sometimes 20, in each flower. Female catkins ovate
about an inch long, with rather smaller scales than the male*
Germen embraced by the corolla. Stigmas 4, linear all*
equally spreading, pale yellowish green.
The wood is white, soft, but tough B o f a close grain
yet chiefly used tor coarse purposes. *