CHOICE OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES AND RURAL TOWNS.-NO. 2 . 
249 
hardy poplar for planting in cities and towns, on 
account of its narrow form and vertical direction, 
or for planting behind a stable or other agri¬ 
cultural "building, where the principal mass ex¬ 
tends in length, rather than in height, the reasons 
already named concerning its creeping roots, should 
for ever preclude its adoption near human habita¬ 
tions, or in cultivated fields; and the homely asser¬ 
tion of the late William Cobbett, in regard to this 
tree, conveys more truth than fiction, when he said, 
“ That well-known, great, strong, ugly thing, 
called the Lombardy poplar, is very apt to furnish 
its neighbors with a surplus population of cater¬ 
pillars, and other abominable insects.’’ 
The Lombardy poplar, when old, frequently de¬ 
cays at the extremity of its branches, which gives 
the tree an unsightly appearance. This may be 
remedied, however, by heading down the trunk, 
early in the spring, to the lowermost limbs, and in 
Fig. 59. 
the course of the season, new shoots will spring 
forth, and in two or three years it will assume the 
character of a young tree. 
The next foreign tree, after the poplar, which 
attracted attention, and became a universal favorite 
in this country, was the Weeping Willow, although 
it had been much earlier introduced. From its 
long, slender, and pensile branches ; its very early, 
light, elegant and persistent foliage; and the faci¬ 
lity with which it can be propagated, without 
knowing its incapacity to take permanent root in a 
moderately dry soil, it is not surprising that this 
tree should generally have been adopted, and in 
many cases misapplied. Hence the inconsistency 
of planting it in Brooklyn and New York, for or¬ 
namenting the streets and public grounds, the 
error of which is yearly manifest by the number of 
trees uprooted by the winds. 
In ornamenting plantations, the weeping willow 
has the most harmonious effect where introduced 
among trees of shapes as unusual as its own ; partly 
those of a similar character, as the silver-leaved 
maple, or the weeping birch, and partly those of 
contrasted forms, as the Lombardy poplar. The 
effect of all these trees is always good, when ac¬ 
companied by water, as shown in fig. 59 ; but when 
large, in a scene in which there are no other trees 
at all harmonizing with it, by their form, however 
beautiful it may be in itself, it always more or less 
injures the landscape.* Gilpin, in his “ Forest 
Scenery,” remarks that the “ weeping willow is a 
very picturesque tree, and a perfect contrast to 
the Lombardy poplar.” The light, airy spray of 
the latter, he adds, “ rises perpendicularly; that 
of the weeping willow is pendent. The shape of 
its leaf is conformable to the pensile character of 
the tree ; and its spray, which is lighter than that 
of the poplar, is more easily put in motion by a 
breath of air. The weeping willow, however, is not 
adapted to sublime objects. We wish it not to screen 
the broken buttresses and Gothic windows of an 
abbey, or to overshadow the battlements of a ruined 
castle. These offices it resigns to the oak, where 
dignity can support them. The weeping willow 
seeks an humbler scene ; some romantic foot-path, 
which it half conceals, or some glassy pond, over 
which it hangs its stream¬ 
ing foliage,— 
— £ and dips 
Its pendent boughs, stooping, as if 
to drink.’ " 
This tree is not calcu¬ 
lated for what is termed 
“ rural or woodland scene¬ 
ry its softness of tint 
and peculiarly graceful 
habit, seem to render it a 
proper object for embel¬ 
lished landscapes. It is 
an excellent tree to plant 
by the side of fish-ponds, 
as it is generally found to 
lean over the water, and by 
this mean*affords shade 
to the fishes, which are 
frequently killed, in hot 
summers, by the rays of 
the sun, where there is no 
shade on the water; and the smaller the pool, the 
greater is the necessity to give it shade. 
The Mountain Ash has also long been a favorite 
in the cities and larger towns in the Middle and 
Northern States, and as an ornamental tree is well 
adapted for small gardens, or any place where the 
harboring of singing birds is desired. “ In the 
Scottish Highlands,” observes Gilpin, “ it becomes 
a considerable tree. There, on some rocky moun¬ 
tains, covered with dark pines and waving birch, 
which cast a solemn gloom over the lake below, 
a few mountain ashes, joining in a clump, and mix¬ 
ing with them, have a fine effect. In summer, the 
light-green tint of their foliage, and, in autumn, the 
glowing berries which hang clustering upon them, 
contrast beautifully with the deeper green of the 
pines; and, if they are happily blended, and not in 
too large a proportion, they add some of the most 
picturesque furniture with which the sides of those 
rugged mountains are invested.” One great advan¬ 
tage of the mountain ash, in all situations, is, that 
it never requires pruning, and never grows out of 
shape. But unfortunately for this tree, as also is 
the case with-its American congener (Pyrus aucu- 
paria americana ), its trunks and roots are perfo- 
* Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, pp. 1511 et 1512. 
