388 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



and resign themselves to their fall with a graceful abandon that 

 is bewitching. The trunk and great branches become ruggedly 

 massive as the tree reaches maturity, and their deeply-furrowed 

 bark contrasts finely with the delicacy of the spray. The weird 

 movement of its drooping plumes of foliage, as they wave slowly in 

 the slightest summer wind, is unequalled except by the more stately 

 and exquisite palm of the tropics ; the full beauty of which can 

 never be understood by those who have never seen the grace of its 

 stately motion. But our willow is one of the grandest, as well as 

 most graceful, vegetables of the temperate zone, and barely yields 

 to the oak and the elm in majesty of proportion. Fig. 122 is a 

 noble specimen spanning the old Stratford road in East Bridge- 

 port, Conn., growing in a dry, well-drained soil, near the river or 

 bay. It comes into leaf with the aspen and the buckeye, and 

 holds its leaves later than any other large deciduous tree ; often 

 exhibiting a noble mass of verdure when the chestnuts and the 

 hickories, and even the maples, are quite bare of leaves. 



There is no good reason why this tree should be principally 

 associated with graveyards. It is a sunny, cheerful tree, full of 

 glorious vitality, and always beautiful, though it may have faults 

 that unsuit it for some places. These are brittleness of limbs, 

 tendency to decay soon after it attains large size, and the habit of 

 its small leaves, when they fall, to settle into the grass and rot 

 there, making it troublesome to keep the grass clean under them. 

 The leaves are also attractive to the same caterpillar that weaves 

 dirty webs in most fruit trees, but by timely attention in cutting 

 out and destroying these nests this nuisance may be abated. Such 

 faults make the weeping willow unsuitable for planting near a 

 residence or as a street tree. It must be remembered that it 

 quickly becomes a tree of great size, and should not be planted 

 where it will not have room for expansion, or where the extension 

 of its branches will injure and overtop other valuable trees or 

 shrubs. Nor should it be planted in any considerable number 

 together. All trees of a highly distinctive character should be 

 introduced sparingly. The weeping willow and the Lombardy 

 poplar represent two opposite extremes of individuality. If used 

 in the proper places they serve by their very unusual forms to 



