472 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



of melancholy. There is a similar train of emotions, but in a 

 fainter degTee, produced in the mind by the falling branches, 

 drooping spray, and yellow colour of the weeping willow. It 

 suits with scenes of solitude, and leads to meditation. There 

 is a degree of cheerfulness in the light, airy form of the ash, 

 and the bright white of the variegated holly ; ease and grace- 

 fulness in the festoons of virgins' bower ; delicacy in the myrtle ; 

 and a peculiar elegance in the sweep of the stem and curve of 

 the branches of the larch. The oak and the chesnut possess 

 forms which have long been associated with grandeur and sub- 

 limity. These and many other trees are remarkably expressive 

 of certain known characters. This arises partly from the nature 

 of the trees, andpartly from secondary associations. The cypress 

 and the yew have been planted on burial places ; the weeping 

 willow to shade urns ; the Romans crowned their warriors with 

 laurels ; and the chesnut was introduced into the landscapes of 

 Salvator Rosa. 



23. Accidental expression in trees or shrubs depends gene- 

 rally upon their rarity or singularity of form. Thus exotics, 

 when first introduced among indigenous trees, are easily distin- 

 guished from them, and are commonly denominated elegant, 

 fanciful, strange, or novel ; as was the Lombardy poplar and 

 the larch, and as is now the China rose and the Acuba japo- 

 nica. Some trees partly retain this character from their com- 



