84 Landscape Gardening 



hedge. Examples of this can be easily found in many 

 parts of the Union where the crude and formal taste of 

 proprietors, by leading them to plant long lines of Lom- 

 bardy poplars, has had the effect of destroying the beauty 

 of many a fine prospect and building.* 



Conical or oblong-headed trees, when carefully employed, 

 are very effective for purposes of contrast, in conjunction 

 with horizontal lines of buildings such as we see in Grecian 

 or Italian architecture. Near such edifices, sparingly in- 

 troduced, and mingled in small proportion with round- 

 headed trees, they contrast advantageously with the long 

 cornices, flat roofs, and horizontal lines that predominate 

 in their exteriors. Lombardy poplars are often thus intro- 

 duced in pictures of Italian scenery, where they sometimes 

 break the formality of a long line of wall in the happiest 

 manner. Nevertheless, if they should be indiscriminately 

 employed, or even used in any considerable portion in the 

 decoration of the ground immediately adjoining a building 

 of any pretensions, they would inevitably defeat this pur- 

 pose, and by their tall and formal growth diminish the 

 apparent magnitude, as well as the elegance of the house. 



Drooping trees, though often classed with oblong-headed 

 trees, differ from them in so many particulars, that they 

 deserve to be ranked under a separate head. To this class 

 belong the weeping willow, the weeping birch, the drooping 

 elm, etc. Their prominent characteristics are gracefulness 

 and elegance; and we consider them as unfit, therefore, to 

 be employed to any extent in scenes where it is desirable to 

 keep up the expression of a wild or highly picturesque char- 

 acter. As single objects, or tastefully grouped in beautiful 

 landscape, they are in excellent keeping, and contribute 

 much to give value to the leading expression. 



When drooping trees are mixed indiscriminately with 



* la America the Lombardy poplar has now come to be a sort of 

 shibboleth. The critical naturalists refuse it because of its exotic char- 

 acter, while the architects and formalists use it with dangerous frequency. 

 There is some criticism, too, of the Lombardy poplar as being a "cheap" 

 tree, i.e., quickly grown and quickly lost. F. A. W. 



