deliberate correction, he increased this to ”twelve to fifteen inches”. He also in the 1832 book says that poplars ”of great dimensions” were plentiful on the island. 528

Habitat and community relationships — The amount of information in the early records on the tree associates and soil relationships of poplar is limited but useful. MacGregor (1828) noted that what must have been trembling aspen, occurred in two different habitats: the first was "where the original wood has been removed”. Though he does not specify the factor responsible for the removal of the wood, his use of the term ’removed’ implies either land clearance for agriculture, or cutting for

timber or firewood. He thus appears to be referring to poplar as an element of the successional forest on abandoned farmland or after clear—cutting. But, as noted above, since

elsewhere he includes poplar as an element of the forest "springing up” on lands "destroyed by fires”, including the fires of the French period, it is likely that he also had in mind succession after forest fire. The second habitat, MacGregor says, is ”low ground”. We can expand on this limited statement with Stewart's (1806) comment that poplar was ”not an indication of good soil”, and even more with Bain's (1890) statement that poplar was one of the species found on ”the cold soils of the swamps and barrens”.529 We have here I think the recognition of the species as an element in the island’s boreal forests, and Bain lists ”spruces, larches, birches” and the fir as associates of poplar in such forests.

Properties and uses — Poplar was among those trees whose timber Hill (1839) considered as ”not valuable”, though he may have been referring to the quantity of wood available for use, rather than to the quality of the wood itself. The only recorder who gives an extended description of the uses of poplar wood is Stewart (1806) who noted that although ”the wood when green, is soft and white,

. when dry it is extremely hard and light”. He added that it was ”much used for fencing, for which, when split into rails, it is more valuable than any other wood produced on the island, being

523 With respect to tree size, we might note here that Captain

John MacDonald (1784) wanted “thick logs of the best large white poplar eight to twelve feet long" cut and seasoned “for chairs and other uses”. He perhaps had in mind either balsam poplar or largetooth aspen.

529 ln 1882 Bain had recorded Populus (remuloides as “[loving] the borders of the swamps", while he said P. grandidentata preferred dryer lands.

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much more durable”.530 He also said that it was

”very fit for some kinds of turner’s work”: in support of this we have Benjamin Chappell’s use of it for his spinning wheelsS3', while Captain John MacDonald’s (1784) ”white poplar" was to be used for "chairs and other articles”. Finally, according to Bain (1890) balsam poplar was planted as a shade tree about dwellings.532

Conclusion Almost all of the comments on poplar appear to refer to the trembling aspen which seems to have been an uncommon tree in the pre-settlement forests of the island occurring in those forests confined to wetter and poorer habitats. However, because it was a successional tree on abandoned farmland and after fires, it seems to show an increase in abundance as the nineteenth century progressed. The other two poplar species must have been even rarer since they seldom enter the records of the period — though there is always the problem that they may have been subsumed in the generic name 'poplar’.

OTHER MINOR BROAD-LEAVES

Seven other genera of broad-leaved trees and shrubs make an appearance in the early records (Table 1-7). All are mentioned by only a few recorders especially from the late nineteenth century. Most are shrubs or small forest—edge trees that made little contribution to the total forest cover, and as a result were less likely to attract the attention of most of the early recorders.

lRONWOOD (Ostrya virginiana)

This, the rarest of the island’s forest trees — it is not only rare but confined in its distribution to a

53° Stewart was aware of the presence of white cedar on the

island, but his only comment on it was that it was common only in the “north-west corner of the island." He was perhaps not aware of its superior properties for fencing.

53‘ Chappell (1778-1818). Chappell used ‘poplar' especially for the ‘rocks’ of his spinning wheels - in 1797, 1798, 1799, 1801, 1804 and 1807.

532 Perley (1847) also records that balsam poplar was "much in request as an ornamental tree" in New Brunswick. The imported Lombardy poplar is also mentioned by Sutherland (1861) as being “slender and tall and highly ornamental", and the frequency of its planting on the island by the 1870s is very evident from its common presence in the views of farms and houses in Meacham‘s Illustrated Historical Atlas (Allen 1880).