130 G. ABBEY — ON THE DESTKUCTION 



not nearly at their best by another 150 years, hence the loss of this 

 one is the more lamentable. 



Elms thrive singularly well on the soil of St. Albans and its 

 neighbourhood, which is calcareo-siliceous in some places and 

 calcareo-argillaceous in others. The ancient Britons and Romans 

 took care to pitch their habitations where the soil was capable of 

 producing "the staff of life," where rich pasturage was abundant 

 and there was a plentiful supply of pure water. And the monks, 

 with their learning, the Abbots of St. Albans in particular, always 

 kept an eye on the good things of the earth : hence they farmed 

 the best lands, and, with the barons, occupied the best situations. 

 Elms and nettles, both belonging to the natural order Urticacese, 

 grow on good land, their whipcord-like roots taking a deep hold 

 (with a wide range) of the soil, and therefore the elms derive 

 abundant nutrition from the siliceous and argillaceous drift beds 

 overlying the Chalk, and pump up moisture, or absorb that which 

 is supplied to them by capillarity, from great depths, so that 

 they are but little inconvenienced by droughty weather. 



The soil of St. Albans (and the same may be said of that of 

 "Watford) is essentially suitable for elm-trees, as shown by their 

 making more rapid growth than any other tree, except perhaps 

 poplars. The elm, however, is not a desirable town tree, for the 

 limbs are liable to be broken by high winds, and the tree itself 

 sometimes snaps off bodily near the ground. But this scarcely 

 applies to the St. Albans elms, for, owing to the peculiar nature of 

 the soil, they build up their structures solidly, yet with remarkable 

 elasticity. The elm also bears pollarding well ; consequently when 

 the trees get too large, and may possibly endanger the public 

 safety by the falling of branches or the downfall of the tree, the 

 head may be cut off with the certainty that it will foiTa another 

 quite as fine or finer, and thus make a more suitable town tree. 



The mischief to the elm-tree in Victoria Street commenced by 

 horses biting the bark, but this was not broken through until the 

 winter of 1892-93, when the tree was run into and abraded by 

 some heavily-laden vehicle. The bark around the wound, as shown 

 at A in the accompanying plate (Plate III), dried up in shreds, 

 and no callus was formed around the wound in the following 

 summer, as would be the case under normal conditions, the tree 

 striving to cover the wound by occlusion, as represented at B, 

 and making a special effort in that direction by the growth of 

 cellular tissue around the circumference of the injured area. In 

 the following year (1894) it was noticed that the bark surrounding 

 the wound had become of a pale colour, as shown at C. 



The malady being evidently due to a fungoid growth, observa- 

 tion was kept on the tree for the appearance of the fungi. They 

 were anticipated to appear in tlie aiitumn, and to be PoJyporuH 

 sulplvureus, as several tine specimens of this species were found 

 on two elm -trees in Beaumont's Avenue, and the spores were 

 supposed to have come from there in 1893. They did nt)t appear 

 in 1895, but the bark became pale in colour all round the tree, 



