WEEPING TREES 
I HAVE a weeping tree of some kind in my front 
yard that I found on the place when I came 
here, some five years ago. The tree grows up 
straight for about five feet when it branches out and 
droops towards the ground. Three years ago some 
of the branches commenced to grow up straight and 
now one side is losing its weeping character, and be¬ 
coming an ordinary upright grower. Why is it 
Can a tree change in its form of growth ? Can you 
tell me the name of it ? S. M. P. 
There are so many forms of weeping trees that I 
cannot identify yours from your description. Un¬ 
doubtedly the trouble with your tree is, to use a 
phrase common among tree men, the stock (the 
trunk) has run away with the graft (the weeping 
part). Nearly all weeping trees are grafted or 
budded stocks, that is, the stem is an upright form of 
the species, and the head or drooping part, a weeping 
form of the same or an allied species, the latter being 
budded or grafted upon the former. If you examine 
your tree carefully, you can probably see where the 
grafting took place. Look immediately under that 
part of the trunk from which the weeping branches 
start, and you will find evidence of a change in the 
appearance of the trunk. Sometimes it is a constric¬ 
tion and sometimes a swelling. Generally speaking, 
the species to which the trunk belongs is a stronger 
grower than the weeping part, and any branches ema¬ 
nating from it would soon outgrow the weeping part. 
There is no doubt but that your tree trunk has sent 
out some branches below the graft, and they are 
monopolizing the strength of the tree. The weeping 
part, being deprived of its share of sap, has died back. 
Your tree may have been neglected too long. Cut 
these robber branches off close to the trunk and it 
may recover its weeping form. 
Sometimes a shrub form of a species is grafted upon 
a tree form, as is the case with the Catalpa Bungeii 
and Prunus triloba. Weeping forms of a tree are 
what are called “Sports,” i. e., departures from the 
type. Most of the colored-leaved or cut-leaved trees 
are sports. When a sport is discovered, if it is pleas¬ 
ing in appearance, it is perpetuated by the nursery¬ 
men. Sometimes these sports show themselves by a 
variation in one branch or part of a branch, or one 
may develop among a lot of seedlings as did Teas’ 
weeping mulberry. Mr. Teas, a nurseryman, found 
among a large bed of seedlings one plant that instead 
of assuming the usual upright form, sprawled out 
upon the ground. He saved it, grafted it upon some 
trunks of the upright form and gave us the weeping 
mulberry of our gardens. It is a very interesting 
fact that the ultimate action of the same sap arising 
from the roots produced an upright growing branch 
from the trunk, hut the moment its actions are at 
work above the graft, it produces a weeping branch. 
Many rare trees are grafted just above the root, as 
is often River’s purple beech. Garden roses are 
often grafted at the root, and sometimes suckers from 
the root spring up, and if allowed to grow destroy the 
part we want. 
Ordinary trees have their allotted period of life 
and die, but their species is continued through their 
seed. But with sports it is dift'erent. They seldom 
reproduce their kind by seed, but by grafting or bud¬ 
ding their existence is carried on indefinitely. They 
are in one sense a part of the original tree although 
that tree may have been dead a hundred years. 
The top of any tree is formed of the continued 
growth of the life cells that had their origin at its base. 
So, too, are the many sports now in existence, formed 
of life cells that originated in the first of its kind, and 
may be young and vigorous while their former part 
may be dead and gone. 
HARDY PLANTS 
What is really meant by the term “hardy,” as 
applied to plants I have bought so-called hardy 
plants and they have winter killed. F. C. P. 
The adjective hardy, when used in connection with 
any plant of a perennial nature, such as shrubs, trees, 
bulbs or herbaceous perennials, suggests not only a 
constitution vigorous enough to stand the rigors of 
the winter, but also an adaptability to a variety of 
soils and surroundings. 
The butterfly weed, Ascleptas tuberosa, is indig¬ 
enous in the sandy slopes ten miles south of here, 
(Highland Park, Illinois,) hut with me, in a clay loam 
even in well drained situations, it seldom lasts the 
second year, and therefore cannot be classed as 
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