182 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



two opposite forms, could only produce discord. The fa- 

 vourite place, when it is most true to nature and itself, is 

 near water, where 



"it dips 



Its pendant boughs, stooping as if to drink." 



COWPER. 



There, when properly introduced, not in too great abun- 

 dance, hanging over some rustic bridge or cool jutting spring 

 and supported and brought into harmony with surrounding 

 vegetation by such other graceful and light-sprayed trees, as 

 the Birch and Weeping elm, its effect is often surpassingly 

 beautiful and appropriate. There it is one of the first in the 

 vernal season to burst its buds, and mirror its soft green fo- 

 liage in the flood beneath, and one of the last in autumn to 

 yield its leafy vesture to the chilling frosts, or fitful gusts of 

 approaching winter. 



We consider the Weeping willow ill calculated for a place 

 near a mansion, which has any claims to size, magnificence, 

 or architectural beauty ; as it does not in any way contribute 

 by its form or outline to add to, or strengthen such character- 

 istics in a building. The only place where it can be happily 

 situated in this way, is in the case of very humble or incon- 

 spicuous cottages, which we have seen much ornamented by 

 being completely hidden, as it were, beneath the soft veil of 

 its streaming: foliage. 



There is a very singular variety of the Weeping willow 

 cultivated in our gardens, under the name of the Ringlet wil- 

 low ; which is so remarkable in the form of its foliage, and so 

 different from all other trees, that it is well worth a place as 

 a curiosity. Each leaf is curled round like a ring or hoop, 

 and the appearance of a branch in full foliage is not unlike a 

 thinly curled ringlet ; whence its common name. It forms 



