I] HABIT 11 



to our accuracy of perception and appreciation of the 

 differences they express. For example, most people 

 readily familiarise themselves with the strikingly distinct 

 types which I may enumerate as the drooping habit of 

 the Weeping Willow, the fastigiate one of the Lombardy 

 Poplar, the spreading and terraced form of the Cedar of 

 Lebanon, and the tapering pyramidal form of the Spruce 

 and other Firs. 



If we examine the broad essentials which are con- 

 cerned in bringing about these very distinct types, they 

 are found to be somewhat as follows. 



In the Lombardy Poplar (Fig. 4) and the Spruce (Fig. 1) 

 the principal branches are subordinate to the main stem, but 

 in quite different ways. In the former they rise at a very 

 acute angle and ascend almost parallel with it, each again 

 giving off similarly nearly vertical branches. In the Spruce, 

 however, the principal branches come off approximately 

 at right angles, and in whorls or nearly so, and then 

 sweep downwards and outwards in flowing curves, bear 

 their subsidiary branches right and left and also sweeping 

 downwards and outwards at wide angles ; and, since there 

 is very regular gradation of growth from the older and 

 larger lowermost to the younger and shorter topmost 

 branches, the tapering habit is long maintained. Further 

 differences are due to the broad leaves, relatively few in 

 number and poised on long petioles in the Lombardy 

 Poplar, as contrasted with the very numerous crowded 

 and sessile narrow leaves of the Spruce that give 

 the plumose appearance so characteristic of the Firs. 

 Moreover the foliage of the Poplar is deciduous i.e. is 

 all shed in the autumn, whereas that of the Spruce 

 remains on for several years, whence the tree is termed 

 evergreen. 



Now let us turn to the other two types selected. The 



