URTICACEvE. 139 



Var. appears to differ only in the leaves being much smoother 

 and destitute of hairs except in the axils of the veins. 



Common Elm. 

 Frencli, Orme commun. German, Felclulme, Buster. 



The elm is the first tree that salutes the early green spring with its light and 

 cheerful green, a tint which contrasts agreeably mth the oak, whose early leaf has 

 generally more of the olive cast. We see them sometimes in fine harmony together 

 about the end of April or the beginning of May. Its appearance is familiar to every- 

 one. It grows frequently to the height of sixty or seventy feet, and occasionally even 

 higher, with a trunk measuring often from three to five feet in diameter at the lower 

 part. The bark of the trunk is remarkably rugged, and furrowed longitudinally — ■ 

 peculiarities that in some varieties extend even to the small branches, which, however, 

 in the typical form of the tree, are smooth. The flowers gi'ow in the early spring, 

 and are produced in small round branches, chiefly at the summit of the tree ; the 

 anthers are purplish. The blossoms open long befoi'e the leaf-buds begin to expand, 

 and being generally produced in great abundance, give at that season an appearance 

 of density to the otherwise slender and finely-divided ends of the branches. The 

 flowers are succeeded by winged seed-vessels, which rarely ripen in this country. If 

 allowed to grow naturally in a good deep soil, no tree is more beautiful than the elm 

 when it has attained a large size ; but most of our trees in the lanes and hedgerows 

 are disfigured and distorted by loppiag ofi" the side branches, with a view either to 

 lessen the shade they throw over the fields, or to straighten the trunk — an object often 

 gained at the expense of the soundness of the timber, for such artificially-trained trees 

 often prove hollow and rotten. According to Evelyn, a common elm will produce a 

 load of timber in forty years : it does not, however, cease growing in favourable 

 situations for 100 or 150 years, and will live for centuries. Gilpin remarks that " no 

 tree is better adapted to receive grand masses of light. In this respect it is superior 

 to the oak and ash ; nor is its foliage shadowing, as it is of the heavy kind. The elm 

 naturally grows erect, and when it meets with a soil it loves, rises higher than the 

 generality of trees ; and after it has assumed the dignity and hoary roughness of age, 

 few of its forest brethren excel it in grandeur and beauty." 



The elm was known to the ancient Greeks, as appears evident from the fact that 

 Pliny mentions that the Greeks had two distinct kinds, one iahabiting the mountains, 

 and the other the plains. The Romans, Pliny tells us, had foui" kinds ; the Mountain, or 

 late Elm, the GauUc Elm, and the Wild Elm. As an ornamental tree it was scarcely 

 known in Fi-ance untU the time of Francis I., who appears first to have planted it in 

 the public walks about 1540. It was afterwards planted largely, particularly in 

 churchyards, by Sully, in the time of Henry W. ; and by desire of that king, who, 

 according to Evelyn, expressed a wish to have all the highways in France planted 

 with it, it soon became the tree most generally used for promenades and hedgerows. 

 In England the elm has been planted fi-om time immemorial, probably from the time 

 that the island was in possession of the Romans, though some writers say it was 

 introduced at the time of the Cnisades. The oldest elm trees on record are, we 

 believe, those of Mongewell in Oxfordshire, which were celebrated in the time of 

 Leland, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Loudon thinks there may be older trees 

 than this unnoticed. The timber of the elm is very valuable when sound, as it 

 possesses qualities not to be found in other trees, especially that of durability under 

 water ; therefore, it is peculiarly adapted for shipbuilding, and all purposes where it 



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