81 



The leaves will be small or large, rough or smooth, narrow or broad, curled or 

 variegated ; and the bark too will be red or yellow, rough or smooth ; some will 

 be early and some will be late ; some will be short and some will be tall ; and 

 they win present in their after mode of growth the same wide differences : in 

 short as a French writer (Baudrillart) has remarked "wliile botanists describe and 

 cultivators sow, they will find that Nature sports with their laboui-s and seems 

 to delight in setting at fault alike the science of the one, and the hopes of the 

 other." And thus in an Elm-growing district the student is constantly puzzled 

 with the trees he meets with. Well he may be ! for if you refer to that monu- 

 ment of labour and persevereuce, Loudon's "Arboretum," you will find that 

 he has given the names and distinguishing characteristics of no less than eleven 

 species and sixty-eight different varieties of Ebns, and even then, he alludes to 

 several other kinds that have also been brought into notice. Herefordshire, 

 however, as has been said, is not a true Elm-growing county — except perhaps 

 on the southern side, in the Ross district. It is not necessary therefore to weary 

 you, or pei-plex myself about these variations, and setting aside moreover the 

 strictly botanical classifications, which vary too, it will be more simple and 

 BufBcient for all practical purposes to consider that there are really but two 

 distinct species of Elm, the 3Iountain, Wi/ch, or, Scotch Elm, and the Common, 

 Small leaved, or English Elm, from which, or between which, all the others have 

 been derived. 



"Harp of the North ! that mouldering long hast hung 

 On the Wych-elm that shades St. Fillan's spring." 



Scott. 



The Ulmus Montana, the Mountain, "Wych, Broad leaved, or Scotch Hm 

 I undoubtedly a true native of Britain, as it is of most of the Northern temperate 

 arts of Europe. It is very general in Scotland, and is also the native Elm of 

 Ireland, and it is only, says Loudon, "within the present century that it has been 

 auch planted in England." It does not send up suckers from the roots but 

 produces an abxindance of perfect seeds, and is thus propagated. 



The Wjch Elm flowers in March long before the leaves appear, and the 

 capsules, which are winged all round like hops, rapidly develope themselves, 

 and produce a very striking effect. It is quite characteristic of the tree, 

 wliich seeds so plentifully as completely to cover the spray; and thus in 

 spring, the TVych Elms in a wood are seen at a glance. 



The Wych Ehn grows very rapidly, and when well grown makes a large 

 spreading tree. It loses its central column at no great height from the giound 

 in branches that spread loosely around and which generally assume graceful 

 forms. The colour .and markings of the bark, and the tuberous growths to which 

 the tree is liable, greatly increase its picturesque effect. Gilpin rather under- 

 values this tree, but Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, his Editor, thinks it "one of the 

 most beautiful trees in the British Sylva. The trunk is bold and picturesque 



