ELM TRIBE 137 



yet the seeds never mature in this country. In April the tender green 

 leaves shoot out from the leaf-buds, and the boughs are clothed in a mantle 

 of lively green, as Bishop Mant has said : — • 



" For lo ! by May's bright touch are seen, 

 Colour'd with varied tints of green, 

 Now deep, now dark, now pale and light, 

 Now almost fading into white. 

 Now brightening to a mellow'd shade. 

 The yellow bright, or russet red, 

 The offspring of the woodland realm ; 

 The glossy beech, the rougher Elm, 

 The waving birch-tree's silver bark, 

 And pallid lime, and alder dark. 

 Maple and willow's countless race. 

 Which clothed their forms with chequer'd grace 

 Of leafy garb before, have now 

 From stem to crown, each branch and bough, 

 Light twigs and open'd spray array 'd, 

 With depth and plenitude of shade." 



But though there are dilferences of hue in the foliage of May, yet these 

 are not striking as in the later year. It is in the autumnal season that the 

 Elm seems most beautiful, for its sere and yellow leaf has a tint of its own, 

 differing from the yellowish-brown of the oak, the golden hue of the maple, 

 the reddish or yellow tint of the willow, and the rich rust-coloured tinge of 

 the beechen boughs. 



The leaves remain long on the tree, but in autumn are often marked 

 with dark spots. The winter Avinds strew the leaves over the ground, 

 and then the spot increases till it bursts open and reveals the cause of the 

 decay to be a minute fungus. Galls are also produced on the leaves by the 

 puncture of a cynips, and each gall contains some drops of liquid, which has 

 been called Elm-l)alm, and used in the cure of wounds. The Elm, indeed, is 

 liable to the attacks of many enemies in the insect world, from the Elm- 

 destroying beetle, which feeds on the inner bark, and in order to reach it 

 pierces through the external covering, and gathers there in thousands, down 

 to the Elm-flea, which, in its brilliant coat of green and gold, skips among the 

 foliage, and devours the leaves with great rapidity, and which, aided by other 

 insects, sometimes so injures a goodly Elm that it looks like a blighted tree, 



The Elm has been celebrated by poets, both ancient and modern • for 

 many have told, like Chaucer, of — 



"The Elmis great and small." 



The ancients twined their vines around the Elm-trunks, and he who reared 

 a vineyard was as careful of his Elms as of his vines. This "Aveddino- of the 

 Elm to the Vine " Avas a source of continual allusion among the Roman poets • 

 and his classic lore suggested it to Milton, Avhen describing the pleasant 

 occupation of our first parents : — 



' ' They led the Vine 

 To wed the Elm ; she, spoused, about liim twines 

 Her marriageable arms, and with her brings 

 Her dower, the adopted clusters to adorn 

 His barren leaves." 



Many very picturesque Elms are found in the neighbourhood of London 



III.— la 



