WEEPING DECIDUOUS TREES. 
45 
CHAPTER III. 
WEEPING DECIDUOUS TREES. 
Within a few years the popular taste has been largely turned 
to the introduction of drooping trees as objects of graceful 
beauty, harmonizing with the smoothness and verdure of a lawn, 
or the high keeping and neatness of a pleasure-garden. Indeed, 
to such an extent has this taste prevailed, that the very object 
aimed at in their introduction has been often defeated by a too 
free use of them, as well as by their arrangement in masses, when 
their side branches — which are their peculiar beauty — are inter- 
mingled or hidden entirely, and by their too heedless distribu- 
tion on all sides. 
Drooping trees, like water fountains, are dangerous in the 
hands of those who attempt their use in the decoration of 
grounds without possessing a considerable knowledge and good 
taste in the composition of a landscaj)e. Gracefulness and 
elegance being the prominent characteristics of drooping trees, 
they are shown to best advantage either singly or in wide yet 
tasteful groups, on lawns or borders, where symmetrical art, 
rather than the natural picturesque, is sought to be embodied as 
the leading feature. Where bold expression is desired, they are 
entirely unfitted ; and when planted mixed indiscriminately with 
those of upright, round-headed forms, their individual character 
is lost. Placed on the borders of groups, at sufficient distance 
to enable them to exhibit their peculiar habits and develop 
freely their forms, many of the drooping trees may be used 
effectively, provided the group of which they form a part is 
composed of trees with similar pensile, although not so distinct, 
