rgined.

=Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins drooping, 4-6 inches long: capsules ovoid,
acute, longer than the pedicels, green: seeds numerous, hairy.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all
excepting very wet soils, in full sun or light shade, and in exposed
situations; of rapid growth, but subject to the attacks of borers, which
kill the branches and make the head unsightly; also spreads from the
roots, and therefore not desirable for ornamental plantations; most
useful in the formation of shelter-belts; readily transplanted but not
common in nurseries. Propagated from cuttings.

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.--Populus balsamifera.]

1. Branch with sterile flowers.
2. Sterile flower, back view.
3. Sterile flower, side view.
4. Scales of sterile flower.
5. Branch with fertile catkins.
6. Fertile flower.
7. Fruiting catkins, mature.
8. Branch with mature leaves.

=Populus candicans, Ait.=

_Populus balsamifera_, var. _candicans, Gray._

BALM OF GILEAD.

=Habitat and Range.=--In a great variety of soils; usually in cultivated
or pasture lands in the vicinity of dwellings; infrequently found in a
wild state. The original site of this tree has not been definitely
agreed upon. Professor L. H. Bailey reports that it is indigenous in
Michigan, and northern collectors find both sexes in New Hampshire and
Vermont; while in central and southern New England the staminate tree is
rarely if ever seen, and the pistillate flowers seldom if ever mature
perfect fruit. The evidence seems to indicate a narrow belt extending
through northern New Hampshire, Vermont and Michigan, with the
intermediate southern sections of the Province of Ontario as the home of
the Balm of Gilead.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,--occasional; Ontario,--frequent.

New England,--occasional throughout.

South to New Jersey; west to Michigan and Minnesota.

=Habit.=--A medium-sized tree, 40-60 feet high; trunk 1-3 feet in
diameter, straight or inclined, sometimes beset with a few crooked,
bushy branchlets; head very variable in shape and size; solitary in open
ground, commonly _broad-based, spacious, and pyramidal_, among other
trees more often rather small; loosely and irregularly branched, with
sparse, coarse, and often crooked spray; _foliage dark green, handsome,
and abundant_; all parts characterized by a strong and peculiar resinous
fragrance. A single tree multiplying by suckers often becomes pa