DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 127 



turned up by the wind, give it very much the aspect of a tree 

 covered with white blossoms. This effect is the more stri- 

 king, when it is situated in front of a group or mass of the 

 darker foliage of other trees. It is valuable for retaining its 

 leaves in full beauty to the latest possible period in the au- 

 tumn, even when all the other deciduous trees are eitherbrown, 

 or have entirely lost their leafy honours. Its growth is ex- 

 tremely rapid, forming a fine rounded head of thirty feet, in 

 six or eight years. The Lombardy poplar is a beautiful tree, 

 and in certain situations, produces a very elegant effect ; but 

 it has been planted so indiscriminately in some parts of this 

 country, in close monotonous lines before the very doors of our 

 houses, and in some places in straight rows along the highways 

 for miles together, to the neglect of our fine native trees, 

 that it has been tiresome and disgusting. This tree may often 

 be employed with singular advantage in giving life, spirit, 

 and variety to a scene composed entirely of round-headed 

 trees, as the oak, ash, etc., — when a tall poplar, emerging, 

 here and there from the back or centre of the group, often im- 

 parts an air of elegance and animation to the whole. It may, 

 also, from its marked and striking contrast to other trees, be 

 employed to fix or direct the attention to some particular 

 point in the landscape. When large poplars of this kind 

 are growing near a house of but moderate dimensions, 

 they have a very bad effect, by completely overpowering the 

 building, without imparting any of that grandeur of char- 

 acter conferred by an old oak, or other spreading tree. It 

 should be introduced but sparingly in landscape composition, 

 as the moment it is made common in any scene, it gives an 

 air of sameness and incongruity, and all the spirited effect is 

 lost which its sparing introduction among other trees pro- 

 duces. The Lombardy poplar is also well adapted to con- 



