290 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



he who has planted it may live, without passing beyond the 

 ordinary age of man, to see it become a majestic tree. I once 

 heard an old man, standing in the shade of a tree, nearly two 

 feet in diameter, which towered above all around it, say, " this 

 tree, after I had been many years successful in business, and, 

 in a change of fortune, had retired to this farm with a little that 

 remained, I stuck into the ground after I had used it as a stick, 



in a ride of eight miles home from P ." I know several 



fine rows of majestic elms, the ornaments of the villages where 

 they grow, that were transplanted within the distinct memory 

 of persons now living to enjoy their shade. 



From its having been so long a favorite, it has been more 

 frequently spared and oftener transplanted than any other tree, 

 and there are, in all parts of the State, many fine old trees stand- 

 ing. Of a few of those, which I have had an opportunity to 

 examine and measure, or of which I have received an account, 

 I give some of the dimensions. 



In Springfield, in a field a few rods north of the hotel, is an 

 elm which was twenty -five feet and nine inches in circumfer- 

 ence, at three feet from the ground, when I measured it in 1837. 

 This magnificent tree divides, not many feet from the ground, 

 into several large branches. This is near the place where the 

 enormous Celtis, which was usually taken for an elm, once stood. 

 There are many other elms, not far from this, some of which 

 make a greater show at a distance. 



In West Springfield, the largest tree I could see, upon the 

 road, measured, at the same time, nineteen feet five inches in 

 girth at four feet from the ground. 



At Richmond, I measured, in 1837, with William Bacon, Esq., 

 an elm in the northern part of the town, which was twelve feet 

 two inches in girth, in the smallest part, between the root and 

 branches. This was of the kind resembling a sheaf of wheat. 



The Pittsfield elm was, in the same year, thirteen feet in 

 circuit at four feet. This towers up to one hundred and four- 

 teen feet, without a branch, till near the top. 



In the lower part of Bolton, I measured a tree which was 

 fifteen feet seven inches, at four feet from the ground. 



The Aspinwall elm, in Brookline, standing near the ancient 



