own
that gives other trees but small chance. But on a street, where the
repression of pavements and sidewalks interferes with this exuberance,
the balsam poplar is well worth planting.

The poplars as a family are pushing and energetic growers, and serve a
great purpose in the reforestation of American acres that have been
carelessly denuded of their tree cover. Here the trembling aspen
particularly, as the commonest form of all is named, comes in to quickly
cover and shade the ground, and give aid to the hard woods and the
conifers that form the value of the forest growth.

This same American aspen, a consideration of the lightly hung leaves of
which has been useful to many poets, is a well-known tree of graceful
habit, particularly abundant in the forests north of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, and occupying clearings plentifully and quickly. Its flowers
are in catkins, as with the rest of the family, and, like other poplars,
they are in two kinds, male and female, or staminate and pistillate,
which accounts for some troubles the inexperienced investigator has in
locating them.

There is another aspen, the large-toothed form, that is a distinct
botanical species; but I have never been able to separate it, wherefore
I do not try to tell of it here, lest I fall under condemnation as a
blind leader, not of the blind, but of those who would see!

In many cities, especially in cities that have experienced real-estate
booms, and have had "extensions" laid out "complete with all
improvements," there is to be seen a poplar that has the merit of quick
and pleasing growth and considerable elegance as well. Alas, it is like
the children of the tropics in quick beauty and quick decadence! The
Carolina poplar, it is called, being a variety of the wide-spread
cottonwood. Grow? All that is needed is to cut a lusty branch of it,
point it, and drive it into the earth--it will do the rest!

This means cheap trees and quick growth, and that is why whole new
streets in West Philadelphia, for instance, are given up to the Carolina
poplar. Its clear, green, shining leaves, of good size, coming early in
spring; its easily guided habit, either upright or spreading; its very
rapid growth, all commend it. But its coarseness and lack of real
strength, and its continual invitation to the tree-butcher and the
electric lineman, indicate the undesirability of giving it more than a
temporary position, to shade while better trees are growing.