Aspen Poplar (Populus Tremula, L.) and the Grey Poplar (Poplar Canescens, Willd.)

In 1867 the Ministry of Development created the Commission for Forest Flora, and commissioned Máximo Laguna y Villanueva, inspector general of the Corps of Forestry Engineers, botanist and entomologist, and Pedro de Ávila y Zumarán, to verify the preparatory studies and collect the data necessary for the drafting of a Spanish forest flora. After several years of traveling around almost the whole of the Iberian peninsula, taking data on the distribution, cultivation, and use of woody species, a book was planned to provide a detailed description of the forest species in Spain. A magnificent herbarium was also formed, which unfortunately disappeared in the fire of 1936 caused during a bombing of the building that temporarily housed the School of Forest Engineers during the Spanish Civil War. The first volume, describing woody and spontaneous species corresponding to the groups of gymnosperms and apetalous angiosperms appeared in 1883, and the second volume, with descriptions of dicotyledonous, gamopetalous and dialypetalous plants, in 1890, both titled "Flora Forestal Española : que comprende la descripción de los árboles, arbustos y matas que se crían silvestres o asilvestrados en España con breves notes y observaciones sobre el cultivo y aprovechamiento de los más importantes, y con láminas que los representan" (Spanish Forest Flora: which includes the description of trees, shrubs and bushes that are bred wild or grow wild in Spain with brief notes and observations on the cultivation and use of the most important, including pictures representing them); although the abbreviated form of the title is used: Spanish Forest Flora. This study comprises 63 families corresponding to 152 genera and 553 species. In addition to the scientific name, it includes all the common species' names, gives a detailed description of the most important species, indicating their known area, habitat in Spain, and a few brief notes on their cultivation and use. The text is accompanied by two atlases, published in 1884 and 1890 respectively. Each atlas has 40 colour plates made with the technique of chromolithography, by which the main forest species are represented, made from drawings of the engineer of Salinas Salazar Justo and lithographically reproduced by J.M. Mateu. Maximus Laguna was inspired by the French botanist Antoine-Auguste Mathieu’s Flore forestière (1859) to create his work. The text was written as a guide for many forestry promotions, with which forest engineers, botanists and naturalists could easily identify each specimen, as well as deepen the study of the Hispanic flora. This ilustration shows parts of two plants: Aspen Poplar (Populus Tremula, L 1753) and the Grey Poplar (Poplar Canescens, Willd. 1804)