CHAPTER XIV 

 FASTIGIATE OR ERECT-BRANCHED TREES. 



AMONG the aberrant forms of garden trees those with a pendulous or 

 " weeping " habit are, on the whole, much more planted than those with 

 an opposite tendency of branching. Probably the reason for this is that 

 pendulous-branched trees are prettier and more graceful than the others. 

 A certain kind of sentimentality is attached to weeping trees which is 

 pleasing to many minds. There is more of an aspect of austerity or even 

 rigid sternness about a fastigiate tree. Still, if we value trees for the 

 emotions they inspire and after all that is probably their chief value 

 there is something to be said for these erect-growing kinds. To me, at 

 any rate, few trees are more admirable than a well-grown, well-placed 

 Lombardy poplar, conveying as it does, in much the same way as a fine 

 church spire, a sense of lofty aspiration. 



The value of such trees in the garden landscape is well known, 

 relieving low, monotonous lines of vegetation as they do more effectually 

 than anything else, and enhancing by contrast (as weeping trees do in an 

 opposite way) the beauty and characteristics of other and different types 

 of growth, or even of architecture, with which they may be associated. 

 In the chapter on street planting I have drawn attention to the value of 

 fastigiate trees in that connection. This type of tree has, in fact, a very 

 special value for town planting, owing to the small amount of lateral 

 space each individual needs. 



Some of these fastigiate varieties may be raised from seeds, such as 

 the cypress oak and the Irish yew. Only a small proportion, however, 

 come true ; most of them revert to the type, and some show the fastigiate 

 shape in a less pronounced degree. To avoid a waste of time waiting to 

 see how the seedlings develop, it is more convenient to propagate them 

 by means of cuttings and grafts. If the typical form of tree from which 

 these fastigiate ones have respectively sprung is used as a stock, the 

 latter process is almost free from objection. Cuttings may be employed 

 for all the conifers mentioned below (except the silver fir and the spruce), 

 for the poplars, box, and, with less success, the elms, Ptelea and pyruses. 

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