DECIDUOUS OKNAMBNTAL TREES. 209 



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 ol the first in the vernal season to burst its buds, and 

 mirror its soft green foliage 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, mag- 

 nificence, or architectural beauty ; as it does not in any 

 way contribute by its form or outline to add to or 

 strengthen such characteristics in a building. The only 

 place where it can be happily situated in this way, is in 

 the case of very humble or inconspicuous 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 

 willow ; 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 commor 

 name. It forms a neat, middle-sized tree, with drooping 

 branches, though hardly so pendent as the Weeping 

 willow. 



The uses of the willow are extremely numerous. Abroad 



it is extensively cultivated in coppices, for timber and fuel, 



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