2IO Bulletin 68. 



There are various weeping and grotesque horticultural varieties 

 of the poplars, as of other trees. Concerning the use of these, I 

 need only say that they are curiosities and that the}- should not 

 be given prominent positions directly in front of the house. I 

 think that no one will care to dispute me if I say that a person 

 who fills his front yard with such specimens, has little apprecia- 

 tion of natural objects. A few grotesque specimens in positions 

 of secondary importance may be desirable, as in a side or back 

 yard, but one will find that the more he cultivates a love of nat- 

 ural scenery the less he cares for mere monstrosities. 



I may seem to have placed myself in the position of writing a 

 bulletin upon a group of trees which, upon the whole, I should 

 be quite as willing to discourage as to augment ; but mj^ object 

 has been rather more, as I intimated at the outset, to point out 

 certain common defects in habits of thinking about ornamental 

 trees, and to discourage the use of trees simply because they are 

 odd, quick-growing and cheap. I wish that there were fewer 

 Lombardy poplars in many pajrts of the country, fewer of the 

 ugly white or silver poplars, and more of the American and 

 European aspens, of the large-toothed aspen, of the cottonwood, 

 and the Russian Certinensis poplar. Many of the species are 

 excellent for covering sand-hills — for which the white poplar is 

 well suited — or rough or waste places, and they are capable of 

 adding much light and cheer to a yard. But planters are too 

 prone to use certain ones over freely. 



Poplars are often disagreeable upon the lawn because of the 

 abundance of down or wool which they give to every breeze in 

 May and June, when the seed-pods burst. There is really little 

 occasion for this annoyance, however. The poplars are dioecious, 

 — that is, the male and female flowers are upon different trees 

 (although both sexes are rarelj^ upon the same trees in the cot- 

 tonwood). Nurserymen, therefore, should grow only the male 

 specimens. The cuttings from a male tree — or one producing 

 no cottony seeds — will give progeny of the same character. Of 

 the Lombardy, there is only the male sex in the country, the 

 female never having been introduced, or at least not distributed, 

 so far as I know ; while the weeping willow is represented onlj^ by 

 the female plant. Some of the speciesand varieties are worth plant- 



