ON WOOD AND PLANTATIONS. 
109 
The larch, to which we shall hereafter recur at some 
length, may be considered one of the most picturesque trees 
of this division ; and being more rapid in its growth than 
most evergreens, it may be used as a substitute for, or in con- 
junction with them, where effect is speedily desired. 
Oblong-headed trees , show heads of foliage more length- 
ened out, more formal, and generally more tapering, than 
CF hf a d?d T?e b Jty midal mass of foliage, instead of a spiry, tufted 
one. They are mostly deciduous ; and approaching more 
nearly to round-headed trees, than spiry-topped ones do, they 
may perhaps be more frequently introduced. The Lombardy 
poplar may be considered the representative of this division ; 
as the oak is of the first, and the larch and fir of the second. 
Abroad, the oriental cypress, an evergreen, is used, to pro- 
duce similar effects in scenery. 
The great use of the Lombardy poplar, and other similar 
trees, in composition, is to relieve, or break into groups, large 
masses of wood. This it does very effectually, when its tall 
summit rises at intervals from among round-headed trees, 
forming pyramidal centres to groups, where there was only 
a swelling and flowing outline. Formal rows, or groups of 
oblong-headed trees, however, are tiresome and monotonous 
to the last degree ; a straight line of them being scarcely bet- 
ter in appearance, than a tall, stiff, gigantic hedge. Examples 
of this can be easily found in many parts of the Union, where 
the crude and formal taste of proprietors, by leading them to 
plant long lines of Lombardy poplars, has had the effect of 
destroying the beauty of many a fine prospect and building. 
Conical, or oblong-headed trees, when carefully employed, 
round-headed ones. They differ from spiry-top- 
ped trees, in having upright branches, instead of 
horizontal ones, and in forming a conical or pyra- 
