AMERICAN LM. 509 



and slill maintains his prond and erect preeminence, may commend itself to the 

 taste and attention of the many admirers of this old and venerable friend. 



lie a^cabe in Him. 



Hail to the Elm ! the brave old Elm ! 



Our last lone forest tree, 

 Whose limbs outatand the lightning's brand, 



For a brave old Elm is he ! 

 For fifteen score of full told years 



He has borne his leafy prime, 

 Yet he holds them well, and lives to tell 



His tale of the olden time ! 



Then hail to the Elm ! the ereen-topp'd Elm ! 

 And Ion? may his branches wave, 



For a relic is he, the gnari'd old tree. 

 Of the times of the good and brave. 



The weary hunter from the chase 



Rested beneath his shade ; 

 In the twilight pale the lover's tale 



Was tnUlthe dark-hair'd maid! 

 And ^ath'ring from the mountain sides 



When roused the braves to war, 

 Like a banner he, the old Elm tree, 



Waved on the sight afar. 



When echo from the eastern heights 



Told of old Bunker's hill, 

 And mustering thick, while hearts beat quick, 



Were men of nerve and will. 

 The old tree reared his crested top, 



Like a warrior bold and free, 

 An emblem true to each yeoman's view 



Of death or victory. 



The good old days of winter drear, 



The sleigh-ride and the ball, 

 The good old times, when New Year's chimes 



Sent cheer to col and hall ; 

 When music light, and glances bright 



Blade Christmas evenings gay. 

 He welcom'd them, the hale old Elm, 



AVilh his branches sere and gray. * 



But they are gone, those good old times, 



No Christmas days remain ; 

 Gone loo each man of the stalwart van 

 * In the church-yard all are lain ; 



Each hoary head in his narrow bed 



Hath gather'd him to rest, 

 Vet still wavelh he, the old Elm tree, 

 A canopy over the blest. 

 Then hail to the Elm ! the brave old Elm ! 



Our last lone forest tree ! 

 And long may he wear, that his kindly care 

 O'er our children's children be! 



To the extreme regret of the citizens of Pittsfield, especially of those who were 

 born under its shade, this tree was struck by lightning on the 30th of June, 1841, 

 by which a broad strip of bark was rent from the entire length of the- trunk. 

 Measures were immediately taken to repair the injury, by the application of a 

 plastic compound, but some of the branches begin to exhibit marks of decay, 

 and it is feared that this noble relic of antiquity is fast approaching its final dis- 

 <?olution. 



THE HATFIELD ELM. 



The largest Ulmus americana we have on record, stood, until a few years 

 since, in the town of Hatfield, in Massachusetts, near the river Connecticut. 

 The girth of its trunk, at a yard above the ground, was thirty-four feet, and 

 twenty-four and a half feet at five feet above. There was a cut in the trunk 

 about four feet above the ground, which popular tradition says was made by 

 the tomahawk of an Indian, for the greatest rise of the water ever known in 

 the above-named river. 



