490 



ULMUS CAMPtlSTRFS. 



of ilic Luxciuhoiiri,', at Paris, wliicli stood until it was (k'stroyod, in tlio rcvoin- 

 lion, last iftiMred to. Tlicre are many line avenues of olnis existing in I'rance, at 

 the present day. particularly those in the Champs Elysees, and at Versailles. 



Amoutj the largest existing trees of the Thuus eampestris in France, is one at 

 Nantes, in the nursery of M. l)e Ncrrieres, which, in eighty years after planting, 

 had attained the height of seventy feet, with a trunk six feet in diameter. 



In Italy, at Monza, there is an Ulmus eampestris, which, in twenty-nine years 

 aftrr planting, had attained the height of seventy-five fei.'t, with a truidi one foot 

 anil luue inches in diameter, and an ambitus of forty-live feet. In the same place 

 there is also an Ulmus c. suberosa, of about the same age and dimensions. 



In Switzerland, near Morgcs, there stood an Ulmus eampestris, which was 

 blown down some years since, that had a trunk .seventeen feet and seven inches 

 in diameter, and was estimated to be three hundred and thirty-hve years old. 



The precise date at which the Ulmus eampestris was introduced into the 

 United States is uncertain. There are many trees of this species, and of the 

 Ulmus c. moutana, growing within the environs of IJoston, in Massachusetts, 

 which, from their dimensions, must somewhat exceed one hundred years of age. 

 The largest specimen of the species we have met with, is on the seat of Mr. 

 Henry Codman, in Roxbury, which has attained the height of one hundred feet, 

 with a trunk sixteen feet in circumference, at three feet above the ground. 

 Among the eleven individuals which stand in Tremont street, in Boston, opposite 

 the Granary Cemetery, there are several that measure nine feet in circumference, 

 at about a yard above the pavement. On the authority of Mr. John Welles, 

 these trees were planted by Major Adino Paddock, and John Ballard, in the year 

 1762. 



In the Park, at New York, near the north-westerly corner of the City Hall, 

 there is a beautiful specimen of the Ulmus eampestris, which has attained a 

 height of about fifty feet, with a trunk two feet in diameter. 



Poetical. Mythological^ and Legendary Allusions. The ancient poets fre- 

 quently mention the elm, which, in common with many other trees bearing ines- 

 culent fruit, was devoted by them to the infernal gods. The Greeks and Romans 

 considered all as funeral trees which produced no fruit fit for the use of man. 

 H6mcr alludes to this, when he tells us, in the "Iliad," that Achilles raised a 

 monument to the father of Andromache in the midst of a grove of elms, 



"Jove's sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow 

 A barren shade, and in his honour grow." 



And in more modern times, Strutt informs us, in his "Sylva Britannica," that 

 the venerable Bishop of Durham, erected an urn in the midst of the grove of 

 elms, at Mongewell, in Oxfordshire, inscribing thereon, to the memory of fvo 

 highly valued friends, the following classical fragment, 



"In this once-favnured walk, beneath these elms, 

 Wliere thicltened foliage, to tlie solar ray 

 Impervious, slieils a venerable gloom, 

 Oft in instructive converse we beguiled 

 The fervid time, which each returning year 

 To friendship's call devoted. Such things were; 

 But are, alas ! no more." 



Where, he observes, "it was delightful for him to contemplate wandering, in his 

 ninetieth year, amidst shades with which he was almost coeval, and which, in 

 freshness and tranquillity, afforded most suitable emblems of his own green and 

 venerable old age." 



Ovid tells us that, when Orpheus returned to earth after his descent into the 

 infernal regions, his lamentations for the loss of Eurydice were so pathetic, that 

 the earth opened, and the elm and other trees sprang up to give him shade. 



