EUROPEAN OR FIELD ELM. 49a 



Virgil, in his "Georgics," mentions that the Roman husbandmen bent the young 

 ehns, while growing, into the proper shape for the burya^ or plough-tail, 



" Young Elms with early force in copses tow, 

 Fit lor Uie figure olllie crooked ploujjii." 



The elm was planted by the Romans for supporting the vine; and it is still so 

 employed, along with the Lombardy poplar, in the south of Italy. Columella 

 informs us that vineyards, with elm-trees as props were named " arbusta," the 

 vines themselves being called " arbustivae vitis," to distinguish them from others 

 raised in more conlined situations. Once in two years, the elms were careluUy 

 pruned, to prevent their leaves from overshadowing the grapes; and this opera- 

 tion being deemed of great importance, Corydon is reproached by Virgil, for the 

 double neglect of suffering both his elms and vines to remain unpruncd, 



" Siraipulata libi frondosa vilis in uUno est." 

 Your vine half-pruned upon the leafy elm. 



The use, however, which the Romans made of the elm, as a prop to the vine, has 

 given rise to the most numerous allusions to this tree by the poets, not only 

 ancient, but modern. Ovid makes Vertumnus allude to it, when he is recommend- 

 ing matrimony to Pomona, 



" ' If that fair elm/ he cried, 'alone should stand, 



No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand; 

 Or if that vine without her elm should grow, 

 'T would creep, a poor neglected shrub, below.' " 



Milton, in describing the occupations of Adam and Eve, in Paradise, says, 



" They led the vine 

 To wed her elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 

 Her marriageable arms ; and with her brings 

 Her dower, tlie adopted clusters, to adorn 

 His barren leaves.'" 



Tasso alludes to the same custom, in the passage, 



" The married elm fell with his fruitful vine." 



And Beaumont, when he says, 



" The amorous vine 

 Did with the fair and straight-limbed Elm entwine." 



Wordsworth, also, speaks of it, in that beautiful reflection, the "Pillar of Trajan," 



" So, pleased with purple clusters to entwine 

 Some lofty Elm-tree, mounts the daring vine." 



Cowper very accurately sketches the variety of form in the elm, and alludes to 

 the different sites where it is to be found. In the "Task," he first introduces 

 this tree rearing its lofty head by the river's brink, 



"There, fast rooted in his bank, 

 Stand, never overlooked, our fivourile elma, 

 That screen the herdsman's solitary hut." 



Then he gives an enchanting scene, where a lowly cot is surrounded by these 

 trees, 



" 'T is perched upon the green hill-top, hut close 

 Environed with a ring of branching elms, 

 That overhang the thatch." 



And he then introduces us to a grove of elms, 



" The grorp receives us nert ; 

 Between the upright shafts of whose tall elma 

 We may d'scera the thresher at his task." 



