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Elm. This is not a native tree. Its very name (corrupted from 

 ulmus) shows its foreign origin, and the fact that it never ripens 

 its seed in England is another proof of the same. Yet it is now 

 our commonest tree. In Evelyn's time Elm trees were not found 

 in Shropshire and several other counties, and rarely any beyond 

 Stamford.* It was probably introduced by the Eomans, and 

 must at once have spread rapidly, for though Aubrey said that 

 there were only three places in England named from the Elm, 

 yet it would be easy to find more. In Somersetshire there are 

 two places called Elm, and in my own parish is a family, of long 

 standing, called Elms or Nelms. These are probably from the 

 Elm, but I think it doubtful whether some other places such as 

 Elmley, Elmworth, &c., may not have some other origin, because 

 I find that one of the places so named is in the Isle of Sheppy, 

 and I feel sure that there never could have been there such a 

 growth of Elms as to give a name. The whole Isle is almost 

 treeless. There is an Elm which is a true native, the Wych Elm, 

 but it does not spread like the other Elm, and so is a much less 

 common tree. I am not aware of any places named after the 

 Wych, unless Wychnor, in Staffordshire, and Wychwood Forest 

 may be so named ; but if there was any place so named it would 

 be difficult to distinguish it on the one hand from the common 

 Wic, which we have in Wick, Bathwick, Swanswick, &c., and on 

 the other from the Wich which marks the salt works. 



There is a village under Lansdown called Beach, and it is 

 always assumed that it is so named from the tree. It may be so, 

 but there are no Beeches there now, and the soil is not that in 

 which you would expect a natural growth of Beeches. The name 

 is certainly an old one, it occurs in the old accounts of the manor 

 as Le Beche, and I am inclined to look for the derivation of the 

 name in another direction. The village lies under that 

 remarkable acutely-pointed headland which we call Derby Point, 



* Sylva, C. iv. 



