Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. II 
NO. 12 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN. MASS. JULY 13, 1916 
Weeping Trees. A year ago a short account of fastigiate trees, that 
is trees v/ith abnormally erect branches, appeared in one of these 
bulletins, and it may be interesting to supplement this with an account 
of the trees commonly called “weeping," that is trees with abnor- 
mally drooping branches. Such abnormal trees have been industriously 
hunted for and largely propagated by nurserymen because many of 
their customers are interested in curious plants which are the joy of 
the owners of many suburban gardens, especially in Europe where 
happily such plants are in more general use than they are in this 
country. It can be said that “weeping" trees are less useful than 
some of the pyramidal trees for they cannot be used in mixed planta- 
tions or bear crowding, and must stand as isolated specimens in the 
park or on the lawn or the effect of the peculiar habit for which they 
are valued will be lost. V/eeping trees of many of the large Willows 
are propagated by cuttings, and those of other trees by grafting a 
weeping branch on a stem of a normal tree of the same or of a related 
species, and it can be said generally that the Willows with pendulous 
branches produced from cuttings are the handsomest of the pendulous 
trees because they appear less abnormal. 
Willows. The best known of the trees with pendulous branches is the 
Weeping Willow from China, a large tree with long slender drooping 
branchlets which sweep the ground, and narrow, dark green, very 
lustrous leaves. This is the common tree Willow in the region border- 
ing the Yangtse River for two thousand miles from its mouth, and the one 
frequently planted in villages and cemeteries in other parts of the 
empire. For centuries this has been a favorite tree with the Chinese, 
and is a familiar object in many Chinese pictures, and is often repre- 
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