CHAPTER  XIV
 

               Fastigiate or Erect-branched  Trees.



Among the aberrant forms  of garden trees those with a pendulous or

" weeping " habit are, on the whole, much  more planted than those with

an opposite tendency of branching.   Probably the  reason for  this is that

pendulous-branched trees  are prettier and more graceful than the others.

A certain kind of sentimentality is attached to weeping  trees which is

pleasing to many minds.   There is more of an aspect of austerity or  even

rigid sternness about a fastigiate tree.  Still, if we  value trees  for the

emotions they inspire—and after  all that is probably their chief value—

there is something to be said for these  erect-growing kinds.  To me, at

any  rate, few trees  are more admirable than a well-grown,  well-placed

Lombardy poplar, conveying  as it does,  in much  the same way as a  fine

church spire, a sense of lofty aspiration.

   The  value of such  trees  in  the garden  landscape  is well  known,

relieving low,  monotonous  lines of  vegetation as they do more effectually

than anything else, and enhancing by contrast (as  weeping  trees do in an

opposite way) the beauty and characteristics of  other and  different types

of growth, or  even of  architecture,  with which  they may  be associated.

In the chapter on street planting I  have drawn attention  to the value of

fastigiate trees in that connection.   This type of tree has, in  fact, a very

special value  for  town planting, owing  to  the  small amount of lateral

space each individual needs.

   Some of  these fastigiate  varieties may be raised from  seeds, such as

the cypress oak and the  Irish yew.   Only a small proportion, however,

come true; most of  them revert to  the type, and some show the fastigiate

sha.pe in a  less pronounced degree.   To avoid a waste of time waiting to

see how the  seedlings  develop, it is more  convenient to propagate them

by means of cuttings and grafts.   If the  typical form of tree  from which

these  fastigiate ones have respectively sprung is used as a stock, the

latter process is almost  free  from objection.   Cuttings  may be employed

for all  the conifers mentioned below (except the silver fir and  the spruce),

for the poplars, box, and, with less success, the elms, Ptelea and pyruses.

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