English Trees and Tree-planting by William H. Ablett

Author:William H. Ablett
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Smith Elder
Published: 1880-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

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zontal rod, placed at the height of three feet from the ground, and thus a compact fence is made at once, in the progress of a single season. They are lopped in the course of a few years, and sometimes the trees are thinned out, which enables the remainder to acquire considerable dimensions, when a fence is formed of tree-trunks of a very solid description.

In France this variety attains a great height, some trees on the banks of the Seine at Eouen standing 150 feet high, and in this country trees are met with which range from 100 feet to 125 feet in height. As the cuttings will grow when inserted in the ground as readily as the willow, this species is propagated with the greatest ease.

Black Italian Poplar (P. nwnilifera). —^This variety is sometimes called the necklace-bearing, as well as the Canadian poplar, and is a tree of very rapid growth, being found growing in the district between Canada and Virginia, on the margins of lakes, where it generally attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, but is found reaching a higher altitude than this in Great Britain, on rich moist soil, becoming a large timber-tree in the space of a very few years. Its growth is more vigorous than that of the gray poplar, the side shoots taking a more horizontal range, being readily distinguished from the Lombardy poplar when a plant, by its young shoots being fluted towards the extremities, and of a darker colour; its leaves being also broader. It will grow well on poor soil, if its roots have access to water.

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260 ENGLISH TREES AND TREE-PLANnNG.

When reared in plantations for the sake of its timber, the trees should stand moderately close, as a certain degree of confinement (without over-crowding) impedes the too luxurious growth of side branches, trees being known at the age of twenty-five years to reach a height of sixty feet, and contain forty-six cubical feet of timber. The wood makes good flooring, being very white, and also durable, if kept dry. The variety is easily propagated by cuttings.

There are several other species of poplars that are mostly of American origin, but are not very often cultivated, amongst which may be mentioned the Ontario poplar (P. candicans\ which a good deal resembles the balsam poplar, but has large heart-shaped leaves. This latter variety, however, cannot be grown profitably for timber, the branches becoming brittle as soon as the tree ceases to grow vigorously.

The WiUow {Salix). —Natural family Amentacece ; DicBcia ; Diandria of Linnaeus. There have been enumerated about one hundred and forty different species and varieties of the willow, natives of widely different parts of the globe, and ranging in stature from the smallest kinds, known as osiers used in basket-making, of a height of only a few inches, to lofty trees which tower upwards fully eighty feet, there being no genus of plants, perhaps, which is so confused as the willow.

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