The Canadian Horticulturist. 267 



WEEPING TREES. 



HAVE frequently been asked whether weeping trees were, or were 

 not, made by inserting grafts or buds top downwards, and I have 

 often heard it asserted (although not lately), that that was 

 the way weepers are made. During the past few years I 

 have been afforded considerable amusement watching experi- 

 ments by a person who has on his lawn a tree which, when 

 planted, was a. weeping mountain ash. After the sapsuckers 

 girdled the trunk, fhe fairly good sized head died and was 

 taken off. A vigorous upright shoot came out from near the 

 root, and in course of time it grew to be quite a tree which showed no indica- 

 tion to weep. Not understanding the cause of this phenomenon the owner 

 drove tent pegs into the ground, bent down the branches and with cords 

 fastened them to the pegs, thus making the tree have somewhat the appearance 

 of a weeper. Last year, however, all the young shoots inclined to upright 

 growth, and now the tree is in the shape of a round crowned hat, with an up 

 turned rim. 



On a lawn, not far from this tree, grows another (so called) weeping moun- 

 tain ash, with stem or trunk only six feet high. The straggling trailing branches 

 about twenty feet long, and propped up with crotched sticks, forming altogether 

 a very distasteful object. 



Similar instances are not at all uncommon. Whoever will have artificial 

 weepers, should procure only such as have suitable stems or trunks. For the 

 mountain ash the trunk should be not less than twelve feet long. For elms 

 and poplars the trunk should be longer. I have noticed that on dry land, all 

 the willows are short lived. I used to think they were not hardy enough. They 

 require moisture throughout the summer. When on Wolfe Island -last sum- 

 mer I observed a number of magnificent specimens of the common weeping 

 willow (Salix Babylonica), tall trees with long, slender pendulous branches, far 

 exceeding in beauty any artificial weeping willow I had ever seen. They are 

 nearly all growing either by the sides of streams, pools or inlets, or near the 

 lake shore, where their roots could reach the water. 



The various kinds of weeping birch thrive well on either dry or wet land. 

 When planted on dry ground they soon send down roots to where moisture is 

 obtained, and I have seen good specimens growing on land too wet for many 

 other trees. They expand their beautiful glossy leaves very early and retain 

 them late in the season, and with their silvery bark and graceful form, are 

 particularly attractive. Moreover, they are hardy enough to stand in any 

 climate where trees grow. 



The weeping beeches, also, do best on their own trunks. There are a 



