CHAPTER XXXV. 



TREES AND SHRUBS FOR WET GROUND 



IN our isles, so well endowed with copious rainfall and in many 

 districts possessed of much wet land in situations not easy to drain, 

 the trees that might be grown for beauty or profit in such ground are 

 worth thinking of. Even in the southern counties we may find 

 ground difficult to cultivate owing to wet, and so it is often better to 

 plant than incur the expense of draining in diversified land, often 

 difficult and costly. 



I leave aside the larger question of draining lake or marsh and 

 turning it to fertile ground, often with success, in France and other 

 lands. We have to plant with trees and shrubs that do not fear the 

 water, but may enjoy it, and make us in planting ugly hollows and 

 ill-formed artificial waters to turn them into scenes of beauty, even of 

 profit. 



Willows. Of trees, among the best are native trees, as the White 

 Willow, precious for its beauty and valuable for its wood. There 

 are many Willows of other countries of Europe and the northern 

 world, but few equal the White Willow and its varieties, also the 

 hybrids between the white and the crack Willows, some grown for 

 their timber. Garden varieties with attractive names in nursery lists, 

 here have been a failure in endurance, of far less value than the 

 true White Willow, frequent in the eastern counties of England. 

 The Weeping Willows are graceful trees that charm, but we never 

 get a good result from them unless in river-borne soil. By artificial 

 waters, often formed in poor soil, they may fail, and never show the 

 abounding beauty we see in valley gardens or beside Thames or 

 Seine. Some of the dwarf Willows may well be used as underwood 

 in wet ground, in which they often come naturally. The effect of 

 some Willows is fine in colour throughout the year, in the Golden 

 Willow, the White Willow, and the varieties known as the Huntingdon 

 and Bedford Willows. 



Poplars. Much less use is made of Poplars in England than in 

 France, where often stately effects are got in a few years from the 



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