X. 1. THE ENGLISH ELM. 303 



for axle-trees, and for innumerable other purposes. A variety- 

 called the Twisted Elm, Orme tortillard, is very highly valued 

 in France for its extreme toughness, and also for the beauty of 

 its grain. When frequently pruned, the wood of the elm be- 

 comes knotted, and is prized by cabinet-makers in France. It 

 takes a fine polish, is very ornamental, and, when stained, ex- 

 tremely beautiful. The knobs which grow on old trees are re- 

 markable for the curious interlacing and twisting of fibres, and 

 as veneers, are used, like mahogany, for articles of furniture. 



As among the ancient Romans, so in France at the present 

 day, the leaves and shoots are used to feed cattle. In Russia, 

 the leaves of a variety are used as a substitute for tea. The 

 inner bark is in some places made into mats, and in Norway, 

 they kiln-dry it, and grind it with corn as an ingredient in 

 bread. 



The European elm "produces abundance of suckers from 

 the roots, both near and at a great distance from the stem ; and 

 throughout Europe these afford the most ready mode of prop- 

 agation, and that which appears to have been most generally 

 adopted, till the establishment of regular commercial nurseries. 

 On the Continent, plants are very often procured from stools, 

 simply by heaping up earth about the shoots which proceed 

 from them. These shoots root into the earth ; and, after grow- 

 ing three or four years, during which time they attain the 

 height of ten feet or fifteen feet, they are slipped off; and either 

 planted where they are finally to remain, or in nursery lines. 

 When they are transplanted to their final situation, the side 

 shoots are cut off; and the main stem is headed down to the 

 height of eight feet or ten feet; so that newly planted trees ap- 

 pear nothing more than naked truncheons. The first year, a 

 great many shoots are produced from the upper extremity of 

 each truncheon ; and in the autumn of that year, or in the sec- 

 ond spring, these shoots are all cut off but one, which soon forms 

 an erect stem, and as regular a headed tree as if no decapitation 

 had previously taken place. All the avenues and rows of elm 

 trees in Europe were planted in this manner previously to about 

 the middle of the eighteenth century ; and, according to Poiteau, 



