Following the eastern coast in wide belts from New York (Staten island and Long island) south to Georgia; west along the Gulf coast to western Louisiana, and northward along the Mississippi and Ohio basins to Arkansas, Indiana, and Illinois. =Habit.=--A slender, medium-sized tree, attaining a height of 30-50 feet, reaching farther south a maximum of 90 feet; trunk 9-18 inches in diameter, usually branching high up, forming a rather open hemispherical or narrow-oblong head; branches irregular, short, rising, except the lower, at a sharp angle; branchlets stout, roundish, varying in color, degree of pubescence, and glossiness, becoming rough after the first year with the raised leaf-scars; spray sparse. =Bark.=--Bark of trunk dark ash-gray, very rough, and broken into loosely attached narrow plates in old trees; in young trees light ash-gray, smooth at first, becoming in a few years roughish, low-ridged. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds conical, acute, more or less resinous. Leaves 3-6 inches long, two-thirds as wide, densely white-tomentose when young, at length dark green on the upper side, lighter beneath and smooth except along the veins; outline ovate, wavy-toothed; base heart-shaped, lobes often overlapping; apex obtuse; leafstalk long, round, downy; stipules soon falling. =Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile catkins when expanded 3-4 inches long, at length pendent; scales cut into irregular divisions, reddish; stamens numerous, anthers oblong, dark red: fertile catkins spreading, few and loosely flowered, gradually elongating; scales reddish-brown; ovary short-stalked; styles 2-3, united at the base; stigmas 2-3, conspicuous. =Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins spreading or drooping, 4-5 inches long: capsules usually erect, ovoid, acute, shorter than or equaling the slender pedicels: seeds numerous, white-hairy. =Horticultural Value.=--Not procurable in New England nurseries or from collectors; its usefulness in landscape gardening not definitely known. [Illustration: PLATE XVI.--Populus heterophylla.] 1. Winter buds. 2. Branch with sterile catkin. 3. Sterile flower. 4. Scale of sterile flower. 5. Branch with fertile catkin. 6. Fertile flower. 7. Fruiting branch with mature leaves. =Populus deltoides, Marsh.= _Populus monilifera, Ait._ COTTONWOOD. POPLAR. =Habitat and Range.=--In moist soil; river banks and basins, shores of lakes, not uncommon in drier locations. Throughout Quebec and Ontario to the base of the Rocky mountains.