32 TOWN PLANTING 



brought into request, the stalwart, beautiful 

 sapling is elbowed in ; it becomes mop-headed, 

 or contorted into some other unnatural or 

 ungraceful shape. By planting at the first 

 such moderate-sized trees as the Robinia vis- 

 cosa, the Mulberry, Mountain Ash, and Beam 

 Tree, Indian Bean (Catalpa), or the beauti- 

 ful flowering Almonds, Cherries and Thorns, 

 all this would be avoided. The Plane tree, 

 too, is badly managed in many of the London 

 thoroughfares, and when, through indiscri- 

 minate planting, pruning of the branches has 

 to be resorted to, this operation is usually 

 performed in the most slovenly and unscien- 

 tific manner, and has in not a few instances 

 led to a diseased and unhealthy state of the 

 trees operated upon. There are cases, how- 

 ever, where pruning is justifiable, and the 

 abuse of a system should furnish no argument 

 against its legitimate use. In the public parks 

 and gardens the removal of weighty branches 

 from such trees as the Elm and Poplar, that 

 frequently break during still warm weather 

 and endanger the lives of visitors, is not only 



