THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 165> 



forms one of the most available ornamental trees. Beautiful at all 

 seasons, with its curious corky bark, rich, glossy star-shaped leaves 

 and picturesque form, it is well adapted for creating marked effects ; 

 and then in the autumn its brilliant crimson hue is remarkably 

 attractive. Either for grouping or as single specimens, the genu.s 

 Fagus or Beech supplies us with a charming set of trees. Among the 

 most striking in character I would place the feni-leaved and purple- 

 leaved as especially fine. The cut-leaved Alder and the newer variety 

 asjplenifoUa I consider very desirable for particular localities. 



There are very many other trees of beautiful form that are unfor- 

 tunately not adapted for general planting. In the neighborhood of 

 Philadelphia we cannot use the elms, because the leaves are often 

 perforated by insects ; nor the ash, on account of the borers ; the 

 mountain ash meets with the same fate, and the thorns are destroyed 

 by a fungus ; the horse chestnuts become disfigured by midsummer,, 

 and so we have to rely on other trees. But wliere this list will 

 succeed, as they evidently do in central New York, my advice is to- 

 use them all freely. There are four genera belonging to tlie great 

 natural order ComfercB, that are furnished with deciduous leaves and 

 tall spiral tops, all well adapted for the centre or background of groups. 

 — the Larch family, of which the European species is preferable ; the 

 Salishuria, or Japan Ginko, with curious yet pretty fan-shaped foliage y. 

 the Deciduous Cypress, with light feathery leaves ; and the Olyptos- 

 trobxis, or Weeping Cypress, liaving unusually graceful foliage and 

 pendent branchlets. Every place should have at least one drooping- 

 tree, as nmch for its intrinsic beauty as for the effect it produces when 

 grown near other forms. For this purpose the Weeping Beech 

 possesses an individuality peculiarly its own. Not so pretentious, 

 perhaps as the preceding, but with a graceful drooping of the more 

 slender branches, the Weeping Linden stands next in the list. Where 

 they will flourish, the Weeping Elms and Weeping Mountain Ash are 

 very handsome ; and the old fashioned Weeping Willow, especially 

 when in the vicinity of water, is often a valuable assistant for creating 

 a beautiful picture. 



For small-sized weepers 1 would suggest the following, all of which 

 are useful, tjud in fact indispensable to the landscape gardener : The 

 thorn, grandidentata poplar, Kilmarnock willow, dwarf cherry, sophora 

 and beech. The drooping varieties of the common ash are stiff and 



