CHARACTERISTICS OF TREES. 
285 
The balsam fir, the Norway spruce, and Fig. 74, 
Fig. 73. the hemlock are conical from first to last, 
swelling out, however, at maturity, into the 
ovate-conical form, of which the Swiss or 
stone pine {F. cejnbra), Fig. 73, is a type in 
every stage of its growth. The cedar of 
Lebanon is a distinctly pyramidal-conical 
tree when young, but widens out as it ma- 
tures, and finally spreads into an immense 
oblate head. The junipers embrace species which are the most 
slenderly conical of evergreens j the Irish juniper. Fig. 74, having 
rather the form of a slender club than of a cone. Some varieties 
of the Norway spruce, and the European silver-fir, are now being 
propagated, which have branches so pendulous that they are nearly 
as slenderly conical as these junipers. 
Among deciduous trees the Lombardy poplar. Fig. 75, 
is the type of what are called fastigiate trees ; i. e., trees 
of upright and compact growth, being distinguished from 
other conical trees by a tendency to vertical parallelism 
of the branches. The balsam fir and the Norway spruce 
are both conical trees, but having nearly horizontal 
branches, are not fastigiate ; while the Irish juniper, the 
arbor-vitaes, and the Lombardy poplar, are all fastigiate. 
It needs to be impressed on novices in the study of 
trees that all these various types of trees vary greatly 
among themselves, so that specimens of any species are 
often seen quite different from the usual type of that spe- 
cies. These variations are called varieties^ and when very 
marked in their character are named, propagated from, and be- 
come the curiosities of arboriculture. 
Pendulous or Weeping Forms. — Of late years, such num- 
bers of new varieties of pendulous trees have been introduced, 
that they might perhaps be considered as a class ; but in a simple 
classification of trees by their outlines alone, they will be found to 
group easily with one or another of the classes already described. 
Pendulous varieties have been found among nearly every species 
Fig. 75. 
