388 
DECIDUOUS TREES. 
and resign themselves to their fall with a graceful abandon that 
is bewitching. The trunk and great branches become ruggedly 
massive as the tree reaches maturity, and their deeply-furrowed 
bark contrasts finely with the delicacy of the spray. The weird 
movement of its drooping plumes of foliage, as they wave slowly in 
the slightest summer wind, is unequalled except by the more stately 
and exquisite palm of the tropics; the full beauty of which can 
never be understood by those who have never seen the grace of its 
stately motion. But our willow is one of the grandest, as well as 
most graceful, vegetables of the temperate zone, and barely yields 
to the oak and the elm in majesty of proportion. Fig. 122 is a 
noble specimen spanning the old Stratford road in East Bridge¬ 
port, Conn., growing in a dry, well-drained soil, near the river or 
bay. It comes into leaf with the aspen and the buckeye, and 
holds its leaves later than any other large deciduous tree; often 
exhibiting a noble mass of verdure when the chestnuts and the 
hickories, and even the maples, are quite bare of leaves. 
There is no good reason why this tree should be principally 
associated with graveyards. It is a sunny, cheerful tree, full of 
glorious vitality, and always beautiful, though it may have faults 
that unsuit it for some places. These are brittleness of limbs, 
tendency to decay soon after it attains large size, and the habit of 
its small leaves, when they fall, to settle into the grass and rot 
there, making it troublesome to keep the grass clean under them. 
The leaves are also attractive to the same caterpillar that weaves 
dirty webs in most fruit trees, but by timely attention in cutting 
out and destroying these nests this nuisance may be abated. Such 
faults make the weeping willow unsuitable for planting near a 
residence or as a street tree. It must be remembered that it 
quickly becomes a tree of great size, and should not be planted 
where it will not have room for expansion, or where the extension 
of its branches will injure and overtop other valuable trees or 
shrubs. Nor should it be planted in any considerable number 
together. All trees of a highly distinctive character should be 
introduced sparingly. The weeping willow and the Lombardy 
poplar represent two opposite extremes of individuality. If used 
in the proper places they serve by their very unusual forms to 
