DECIDUOUS TREES 101 



soil of a cleft in a great rock, and thrive therein most 

 luxuriantly. There is a kind of honey locust (gleditschia 

 inermis) that possesses the great advantage of being 

 thornless. 



We have already spoken of the poplars as affording an 

 instance of a quick-growing family that is apt to lose its 

 beauty, and even die, in a comparatively short space of 

 time, but we are not prepared to give up its use, because 

 groups of the different species may be so disposed as to 

 produce an immediate effect that will last for a time, and 

 can then be replaced by neighboring and more permanent 

 trees. The period of the beauty and vigor of poplars 

 may be extended by removing dead or diseased wood as 

 soon as the smallest amount of it appears. The Carolina 

 poplars and balsam poplars are good kinds, and free 

 from the objection of suckering, which has so greatly 

 injured the reputation of the silver-leaved species. 



For landscape effect, the Lombardy poplar is the most 

 valuable, pointing, as it does, its spire-like form far 

 above the general mass of surrounding foliage. Pruning 

 away dead and diseased wood is especially valuable in the 

 case of this tree, because it tends to renew a fresh, 

 marked vigor of growth. At the corners of small places, 

 on either side of a gate, or along the side or back of the 

 house, the Lombardy poplar produces excellent effect in 

 the landscape, but it should always be associated with 

 large shrubs or other trees, as the lower portions of it 

 are apt to be bare and uninteresting. 



Many of our native trees are both beautiful and well 

 suited for the lawn, and ranking high among these we 

 find the yellow-wood of Kentucky, virgilia lutea, or, more 

 properly, cladrastis tinctoria. It is a charming tree, 

 slow in growth and of beautiful, refined nature. Every 



