Common White or Grey Poplar. Populus canescens. by NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA - POPLAR) Bessa (illus). Gabriel (engraved by) - No date. Ca. 1850s.

Philadelphia.. No date. Ca. 1850s.. Color stipple engraving, added handcolor, image 8 x 5 inches on sheet 10 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches. Archival tape from previous matting along upper edge of verso; very good condition. This is plate 100 from an edition of the Michaux / Nuttall work "The North American Sylva; or, a Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia." This important work by Francois Andre Michaux was first published in France between 1810 and 1813 with handcolored stipple engravings by the great French botanical artists P.J. Redoute, H.J. Redoute and Pancrace Bessa; it was printed and published in the United States in Philadelphia in 1857 with supplementary volumes by the American naturalist Thomas Nuttall; the plates for this section were handcolored lithographs. The plates, most of which depict a branch, flower and fruit, document in the most beautiful manner the abundance of trees native to the United States. .