DESCRIPTIVE ENUMERATION OE TREES. 89 



observed of the Lombardy Poplar. The light airy 

 spray of the Poplar rises perpendicularly. That 

 of the Weeping Willow is pendent. The shape of 

 its leaf is conformable to the pensile character of 

 the tree, and its spray, which is still lighter than 

 that of the Poplar, is more easily put into motion 

 by a breath of air. The Weeping Willow, how- 

 ever, is not adapted to sublime subjects. We wish 

 it not to screen the broken buttresses and Gothic 

 windows of an abbey, nor to overshadow the 

 battlements of a ruined castle. These offices it 

 resigns to the Oak, whose dignity can support 

 them. The Weeping Willow seeks a humbler 

 scene — some romantic foot-path bridge, which it 

 half conceals — or some glassy pool, over which it 

 hangs its streaming foliage, — 



' And dips 

 Its pendent Loughs, stooping as if to drink.' 



In these situations it appears in character, and, of 

 course, to advantage. I have heard indeed that 

 the Weeping Willow is not naturally an aquatic 

 plant, but its being commonly believed to be so is 

 ground enough to establish it as such, in landscape 

 at least, if not in botany. 



