Poplar
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Poplar. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a genus of Salicacex. Catjagged; disk cup-shaped, oblique, entire. drooping , their scales usually Males, stamens 4 to 30; females, stigmas, two to four-cleft; capsule two-celled, loculicidal. Known species 18, from the N. temperate zone. Two, Populas alba, the great white poplar or abele, and P. tremula, the trembling poplar or aspen, lar, is only naturalized. The first is a are indigenous. P. nigra , the black poplarge tree with downy , but not viscous buds. It grows in moist places and mountain woods. The timber is white, soft, and used only for coarse work. The bark is said to be useful in strangury. For the second species, see ASPEN. P. nigra has viscid buds, leaves grows in moist places, on river banks, etc. The wood is light, and not very suborbicular. It valuable. It is used for carving, or burnt for charcoal, and the bark employed for tannin. P. monilifera is the black Italian poplar, P. fastigiata, the Lombardy poplar, and P. canadensis, the Canadian poplar. The buds of P. nigra, the Himalayan P. balsamifera, P. candicans, etc., are besmeared in winter with dation, called tacamahac, considered to a resinous balsamic, bitter , aromatic exube diuretic, and antiscorbutic . The bark of P. euphratica is given in India as a vermifuge. The poplar occurs in the Cretaceous rocks of North America, the Eocene of Bournemouth , and the Miocene of Continental Europe. watered, figured, brocaded, or tissued.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a familiar tree of the north temperate zone. There are twenty-five or thirty species. In England the poplar often goes by the name of aspen. The leaves of an aspen or poplar have leaf-stalks so narrow in proportion to their height that the leaves sway sideways easily and flutter in the slightest breeze. Hence the expression "tremble like an aspen." Poplar wood is white and easily carved. It is a favorite material for woodenware. In the United States and Canada printing paper is made from poplar with the admixture of spruce pulp to give toughness. The cottonwood and balm of Gilead are near relatives of the poplars, and willows are not far distant. The flowers of the whole family resemble those of the willow. The cottonwood is a kind of quick-growing poplar, invaluable as a wind break on the prairies where other trees do not grow well, but not desirable as a park tree on account of the "cotton" which flies incessantly when the seed pods burst. In June wind carries the seed hundreds of miles. The poplar accompanies the willow and the birch to the northern limit of trees.