The weeping willow (_Salix babylonica_) is planted in gardens and may be distinguished by its very slender, long drooping branches, which in every limb suggest the sentiment of a hundred years ago. In allusion to its place among other trees in landscape composition, Mrs. Van Rensselaer says in “Art Out of Doors”:— “As soon as we see a weeping willow it almost shouts out its contrast to the simpler shapes of the trees which determine the general character of all our landscapes or garden pictures. Yet we see it everywhere, in every kind of situation. “In all my wanderings I never once have seen it rightly placed; I never once have seen it where it did not hurt the effect of its surroundings, or, at least, if it stood apart from other trees, where some tree of another species would not have looked far better.” The black willow (_Salix nigra_) is the only one among our native willows which grows to a good size, but even this is seldom more than thirty feet high. [Sidenote: Aspen; American Aspen _Populus tremuloides_] _A medium sized tree, 30 to 60 feet high, with a smooth, greenish gray bark and tapering trunk. The twigs are slender. The buds are long, sharp-pointed, with smooth, glossy scales covered with a gummy substance. Alternate leaf-scars._ The aspen is more conspicuous in summer, when the constant motion of its trembling leaves attracts our attention, than it is in winter, although in some trees the smooth, olive-green bark of the trunk is very attractive, particularly in contrast with the snow. There have been endless allusions in literature to the European aspen, which resembles our species. In a simile showing the activity of Penelope’s maidens, Homer says:— “Some ply the loom; their busy fingers move Like poplar leaves when zephyr fans the grove.” Again Spenser uses the same simile:— “His hand did quake And tremble like a leaf of aspen green.” And Sir Walter Scott uses it in the same way to picture quick changes of facial expression:— “With every change his features played, As aspens show the light and shade.” Gerard, in a way scarcely flattering to the sex, compares the leaves to women’s tongues, “which seldom cease wagging;” but Sir Walter Scott restores the balance in the lines:— “O woman! in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou.” [Illustration: ASPENS _Populus tremuloides_ Page 180 ] The wood is close-grained, soft, and not strong, but it is made into pulp and used in the manufacture of paper. The bark is brittle, with a taste like quinine, but the inner bark is sweet, and in the spring it is used as food by the Indians.