208 BULLETIN 68. 



sees a picturesque clump of L,ombardies standing alone, like that 

 shown upon page 207. Here the one original tree has given rise 

 to a varied progeny of sprouts, and the mass has a freeness of outline 

 which can never be obtained in a regularly planted clump of these 

 trees from which the suckers are continually removed. This partic- 

 ular clump is one of the most picturesque objects in a sweeping 

 landscape near Perry City, Schuyler County, N. Y., but its excel- 

 lence is purely accidental. 



Another feature of common ornamental planting which is well 

 illustrated in the use of poplars, is the desire for plants simply 

 because they grow rapidly. A very rapid-growing tree nearly 

 always produces cheap effects. This is well illustrated in the 

 common planting of willows and poplars about summer places on 

 lake shores. Their effect is almost wholly one of cheapness and 

 temporariness. There is little that suggests strength or durability 

 in willows and poplars, and for this reason they should always be 

 used as minor or secondary features in ornamental or home 

 grounds. , Where quick results are desired, nothing is better to 

 plant than these trees, but better trees, like maples, oaks, or elms, 

 should be planted with them and the poplars and willows should 

 be removed as fast as the other species begin to afford protection. 

 When the plantation finally assumes its permanent characters, a 

 few of the remaining poplars and willows, judiciously left, may 

 afford very excellent effects ; but no one who has an artist's feel- 

 ing would be content to construct the frame work of his place of 

 these rapid-growing and soft- wooded trees. 



I have said that the legitimate use of poplars in ornamental 

 grounds is the production of minor or secondary effects. As a 

 rule, they are less adapted to isolated planting as specimen trees 

 than to use in composition, that is, as parts of general groups of 

 trees, where their characters will serve to break the monotony of 

 heavier foliage. The poplars are gay trees, as a rule, especially 

 those, like the aspens, which have a trembling foliage. Their 

 leaves are bright and the tops are thin. A few of them injudi- 

 cious positions give a place a sprightly air. I especially love the 

 common aspen or Populus tremuloides of our woods (Ffg. 14). 

 Its light dancing foliage and silver-gray limbs always cheer me, 

 and its autumn color is one of the purest golden-yellows of our land- 



