nd the
weeping willow as foreigners. At Niagara Falls, in the beautiful park on
the American side, on the islands amid the toss of the waters, there are
many willows, and those planted by man are no less beautiful than those
resulting from Nature's gardening. In spring I have had pleasure in some
splendid clumps of a form with lovely golden leaves and a small, furry
catkin, found along the edge of the American rapids. I wonder, by the
way, how many visitors to Niagara take note of the superb collection of
plants and trees there to be seen, and which it is a grateful relief to
consider when the mind is wearied with the majesty and the vastness of
Nature's forces shown in the cataract? The birds are visitors to Goat
Island and the other islets that divide the Niagara River, and they have
brought there the plants of America in wonderful variety.

[Illustration: A white willow in a characteristic position]

There is one willow that has been used by the nurserymen to produce a
so-called weeping form, which, like most of these monstrosities, is not
commendable. The goat willow is a vigorous tree introduced from Europe,
having large and rather broad and coarse leaves, dark green above and
whitish underneath. It is taken as a "stock," upon which, at a
convenient height, the skilled juggler with trees grafts a drooping or
pendulous form known as the Kilmarnock willow, thus changing the habit
of the tree so that it then "weeps" to the ground. Fortunately, the
original tree sometimes triumphs, the graft dies, and a lusty goat
willow rears a rather shapely head to the sky.

This Kilmarnock willow is a favorite of the peripatetic tree agent, and
I have enjoyed hugely one notable evidence of his persuasive eloquence
to be seen in a Lebanon Valley town, inhabited by the quaint folk known
as Pennsylvania Germans. All along the line of the railroad traversing
this valley may be seen these distorted willows decorating the prim
front yards, and they are not so offensive when used with other shrubs
and trees. In this one instance, however, the tree agent evidently found
a customer who was persuaded that if one Kilmarnock willow was a good
thing to have, a dozen of them was twelve times better; wherefore his
dooryard is grotesquely adorned with that many flourishing weepers,
giving an aspect that is anything but decorous or solemn. Some time the
vigilance of the citizen will be relaxed, it may be hoped; he will
neglect to cut away the rec