A tree, 30°—100° high, with a trunk 1°—3° in diameter, erect branches forming an open head, and slender branchlets terete or slightly angled while young, marked by many orange-colored lenticels, glabrous or when they first appear coated with deciduous rufous or pale pubescence, reddish brown during their first year, gradually becoming dark gray, and roughened by the greatly enlarged and thickened elevated leaf-scars. Winter-buds resinous, fragrant, ovoid, long-pointed, frequently curved above the middle, ¾′ long and ¼′ thick, with 6 or 7 light orange-brown slightly puberulous scales scarious on the margins. Bark ½′—2½′ thick, ashy gray, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on the surface into thick closely appressed scales. Wood light, dull brown, with thin nearly white sapwood. Distribution. In California in small groves with widely scattered individuals on the coast ranges, the western slope of the Sierra Nevada up to elevations of 6000°—8000°, and on the southern mountains to Mt. Palomar in San Diego County; on the California islands, and on the western slopes of the San Pedro Mártir Mountains, Lower California. On the high Sierra Nevada and in northern California passing into the var. _hastata_ A. Henry, differing in its thicker leaves, usually longer in proportion to their width, often long-acuminate, rounded or cordate at base, frequently 5′ or 6′ long and 3′ or 4′ wide, with glabrous petioles and larger sometimes nearly glabrous capsules on glabrous or pubescent aments, sometimes 10′—12′ in length, and in its glabrous young branchlets. A tree sometimes 200° high, with a trunk 7°—8° in diameter, and the largest deciduous-leaved tree of northwestern North America. The wood is largely used in Oregon and Washington for the staves of sugar barrels and in the manufacture of wooden ware. Distribution. In open groves on rich bottom lands of streams from Siskiyou County, California, to southern Alaska; eastward in the United States through Oregon and Washington to western and southern Idaho; and to the mountains of western Nevada; in British Columbia to the valley of the Columbia River; on the banks of the east fork of the Kaweah River, Tulare County, California, at 10,000° above the sea. 6. Populus angustifolia James. Narrow-leaved Cottonwood. _Populus fortissima_ A. Nels & Macbr. [Illustration: Fig. 121]