Four Trees 
ing willow. If it came by the way of the 
rivers of Babylon, that may excuse its pres- 
ence in a garden which is planned as a 
symbolic exposition of sentiment, but not 
in one which is planned as a work of art. 
I have, indeed, seen one or two Japanese 
pictures where a weeping willow looked 
very well. There it overhung a cascade; 
and it looked well because the falling lines 
of water harmonized with its own lines — 
because, so to say, the cascade excused its 
abnormal shape. If you have a little cas- 
cade, then, plant a little weeping willow ; 
or if you have a big waterfall, encourage a 
weeping willow to grow big beside it ; but 
do not allow one to shed its tears in the 
centre of your lawn, or to mingle its weak 
pendulousness with the sturdier, more normal 
forms of the trees in your foreground group 
or your forest-like plantation. It can never 
form an accent, like the Lombardy poplar ; 
it can only form a contrast and, almost in- 
variably, an inharmonious one. It is out 
of all relation with soft round-headed trees, 
and still more with angularly spreading or 
aspiring trees. 
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