1512 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III.

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weeping willow along with the Lombardy poplar, see Populus fastigiata ina future page.

A large weeping willow, in a scene in which there are no other trees at ailharmonising with it by their form, however beautiful it may be in itself, alwaysmore or less injures the landscape. In Gilpin’s Forest Scenery , he remarksthat the “ weeping willow is a very picturesque tree, and a perfect contrastto the Lombardy poplar. The light airy spray of the poplar,” he adds,

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“ rises perpendicularly : that of the weeping willow is pendent. The shape ofits 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 abreath of air. The weeping willow, however, is not adapted to sublimesubjects. We wish it not to screen the broken buttresses and Gothic windowsof an abbey, or to overshadow the battlements of a ruined castle. Theseoffices it resigns to the oak, whose dignity can support them. The weepingwillow seeks an humbler scene; some romantic footpath bridge, which ithalf conceals, or some glass}- pond, over which it hangs its streaming foliage,—