91 



[ " Fcecund* frondlhjis Ulmi." — Virgil. ] 

 Fertile in leaves, the Elm. 



" But thou, O Pteleas (the Elm), to the swain allows 

 Shades to his cattle, timber for his ploughs." 



Cowleigh. 



The notices of the Elm in the classical writers are very numerous. It ia 

 celebrated in the Iliad for having formed the bridge by which Achilles escaped 

 the Xanthus when that river, by overflowing its banks, endangered his life. 



Virgil says the husbandmen bent the young elm whilst growing into the 



proper shape for the "buris"or plough tail: — 



[ " Continue in Silvis magna vi flexa domatur 



In burim et curvi formam accipit ulmus aratri." 



Geo. I. 169. ] 



Young Elms with early force in copses bow. 



Fit for the figure of the crooked plough.— Drj/den. 



The Romans used the elm as a support for the vine. 



[ " XJImisque adjungere vites." ] 



The lofty elm with creeping vines o'erspread. 



Its straightness of growth, the abundance of its small branches, and above all 



the perfect freedom with which it may be pruned at all times, rendered it 



at once a natural support, as beautiful and elegant as it was economical and 



effective. In the south of Italy it is still so emjiloyed, as is also the Lombardy 



poplar. Columella informs us that elm-tree vineyards were called arbusta, the 



vines themselves being called arbustivcs i^ites to distinguish them from others 



grown in more confined situations. Virgil takes it for granted that the Vines 



will be trained over Elms : 



" Inde ubi jam validis amplexae stirpibus ulmos 

 Exierint, turn stringe comas," &c. 



Geo. 2, 367. 



" But when the rooted vines with steady hold 

 Can clasp their Elms, then, husbandman be bold ! " — Vryden. 



And in other passages also. Once in two years the elms were carefully pruned, 

 to prevent their leaves from overshadowing the grapes, and this operation 

 was deemed of great importance. Corydon is reproached by Virgil for the 

 double neglect of suffering both his elms and vines to remain unpruned. 



[ " Semiputata tibi frondosa vites in ulmo est." ] 

 " Your vine half pruned upon the leafy elm." 



This union formed a fruitful subject of allusion to their authors and 



poets. Ovid delights in it, and uses it with much elegance in the speech of 



Vertumnus to Pomona, when recommending matrimony to her : 



[ " At si staret, ait, coelebs sine palmite truncus. 

 Nil praeter frondes, quare peteretur, haberet. 

 Hsec quoque, quae juncta vitis requiescit in ulmo, 

 Bi non nupta foret, terrse accUnata jaceret. 



Ovid, Metam., Ub. XIV. ] 



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