HENDERSHOT] THE WHITE OR AMERICAN ELM 299 



To me the American Elm typifies the true pattern of right ideals 

 and living. Clean of body and sound of heart, standing firm 

 through the storms of life, sheltering the weak, strengthening the 

 weary with pleasant thoughts, and reaching up to Heaven for its 

 life's needs. It stands out from among its fellows, head and 

 shoulders, not in defiance or with the feeling of dominance. It has 

 become the beautiful being because of its patient toiling, gathering 

 its food and water from Mother Earth and the air. By taking in 

 the sunshine to its life it knits these together and builds up a 

 wonderful body. Surely, the planters of the great elms of the 

 Harvard campus and the Cornell campus had these things in mind 

 so that tj^e students might learn to build up their own lives with 

 the worth-while things. Do you not feel that the soldiers, who 

 gathered under the spreading branches of the elm on that famous 

 day at Cambridge. Massachusetts, to hear the words of their 

 leader, George Washington, were inspired by that tree to carry on 

 their fight for freedom ? 



If you have not made the acquaintance of my friend, the elm, I 

 would urge you to seek him out. Study him so that you will have 

 the right to his friendship. You know we have not the right to ask 

 the friendship of Nature's children unless we can offer them ours. 

 We cannot expect to hear their secrets and feel the warmth of their 

 love unless we can give ourselves to them freely and unselfishly. 

 We must prove our worthiness first before we can ask for their 

 wonderful gifts. But how can we prove our willingness to give 

 ourselves in friendship? The first thing we must do is to try to 

 understand them. We must be patient and seek out their secrets 

 by observation and thinking. 



But how shall we know, you ask, your friend when we see him? 

 and I answer that if in your walks along the city streets or the 

 country roads, 3^ou see a tall, graceful, wide-spreading tree, seventy- 

 five to one hundred and twenty-five feet tall, usually of 

 symmetrical vase shape, with slender limbs and pendulous 

 twigs, you may rest assured that you have found the American 

 or White Elm. 



Upon closer examination you will find the bark of the trunk dark 

 grey, rough and coarsely ridged. The upper branches are of a 

 greyish color while the twigs are of a reddish brown. If you were to 

 cut the tree across its trunk, you would find the wood of a reddish 

 brown color, with pale sapwood. The wood is coarse, hard, heavy, 



