1512 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 

 1305 



PART III, 



weeping willow along with the Lombardy poplar, see Populus fastigiata in 

 a future page. 



A large weeping willow, in a scene in which there are no other trees at all 

 harmonising with it by their form, however beautiful it may be in itself, always 

 more or less injures the landscape. In Gilpin's Forest Scenery^ he remarks 

 that the " weeping willow is a very picturesque tree, and a perfect contrast 

 to the Lombardy poplar. The light airy spray of the poplar," he adds, 



1806 



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" rises perpendicularly : that of the weeping willow is pendent. The shape of 

 its leaf is conformable to the pensile character of the tree ; and its spray, 

 which is lighter than that of the poplar, is more easily put in motion by a 

 breath of air. The weeping willow, however, is not adapted to sublime 

 subjects. We wish it not to screen the broken buttresses and Gothic windows 

 of an abbey, or to overshadow the battlements of a ruined castle. These 

 offices it resigns to the oak, whose dignity can support them. The weeping 

 willow seeks an humbler scene ; some romantic footpath bridge, which it 

 half conceals, or some glassy pond, over which it hangs its streaming foliage, 



