CHAP. CI. ULMA‘CER. ULMUS. 1381 
is well known that our Saxon ancestors called all the places where there 
were salt springs wich or wych (such as Droitwich, Nantwich, &c.), hence, 
probably, originated the name of wych elm, which was originally applied to 
all the British kinds, as well as to U. montana. (See Hunter's Evelyn, i. p.114.) 
As fuel, the wood of the elm is to that of the beech as 1259 to 1540; and, as 
charcoal, as 1407 is to 1600. (Hartig.) The ashes of the elm are rich in 
alkaline salts; and among the ashes of 73 sorts of trees, the properties of 
which have been tried, it occupies the tenth place. (Werneck). The leaves 
and young shoots were used by the Romans to feed cattle, and they are still 
so employed in many parts of France. They have in some places been given 
to silkworms; and, in both Franceand Norway, they are boiled to serve as 
food for pigs. In Russia, the leaves of U. c. parvifolia are used for tea. The 
bark, is used, in some places, as an astringent medicine ; and the inner bark, like 
that of the lime, for making bast mats and ropes. It is said that both the leaves 
and bark contain a considerable proportion of glue. Young deer are very fond 
of this bark; and in Norway they kiln-dry it, and grind it with corn to make 
flour for bread. The elm was planted by the Romans for the purpose of 
supporting the vine; and it is still so employed, along with the Lombardy 
poplar, in the south of Italy. Columella informs us that vineyards, with elm 
trees as props, were named arbusta, the vines themselves being called arbus- 
tive vites, to distinguish them from others raised in more confined situations. 
Once in two years, the elms were carefully pruned, to prevent their leaves 
from overshadowing the grapes; and this operation being deemed of great 
importance, Corydon is reproached by Virgil, for the double neglect of suf- 
fering both his elms and vines to remain unpruned. 
** Semiputata tibi frondosa vitis in ulmo est.” 
Your vine half-pruned upon the leafy elm. 
As a picturesque tree, “ the elm,” Gilpin observes, “has not so distinct a 
character as either the oak or the ash. It partakes so much of the oak, that, 
when it is rough and old, it may easily, at a little distance, be mistaken for 
one; though the oak (I mean such an oak as is strongly marked with its 
peculiar character) can never be mistaken for the elm. This is certainly a 
defect in the elm; for strong characters are a great source of picturesque 
beauty. This defect, however, appears chiefly in the skeleton of the elm: 
in full foliage, its character is more marked. No tree is better adapted to 
receive grand masses of light. In this respect it is superior both to the oak 
andthe ash. Nor is its foliage, shadowing as itis, of the heavy kind. Its 
leaves are small; and this gives it a natural lightness: it commonly hangs 
loosely, and is, in general, very picturesque. The elm naturally grows upright, 
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 (though, properly speaking, it is not a forester) excel it in gran- 
deur and beauty. The elm is the first tree that salutes the early spring with its 
light and cheerful green; a tint which contrasts agreeably with the oak, 
whose early leaf has generally more of the olive cast. We see them some- 
times in fine harmony together, about the end of April and the beginning of 
May. We often, also, see the elm planted with the Scotch pine. In the spring, 
its light green is very discordant with the gloomy hue of its companion ; but, 
as the year advances, the elm leaf takes a darker tint, and unites in harmony 
with the pine. In autumn, also, the yellow leaf of the elm mixes as kindly with 
the orange of the beech, the ochre of the oak, and many of the other fading 
hues of the wood.” (Gilpin’s Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 43.) “ The elm throws 
out a beautiful bloom, in the form of a spicated ball, about the bigness of a 
nutmeg, of a dark crimson colour. This bloom sometimes appears in such 
profusion as to thicken and enrich the spray exceedingly, even to the fulness 
almost of foliage.” (Idid., p.114.) “The branch of the elm has neither the 
strength nor the various abrupt twistings of the oak; nor does it shoot so 
much in horizontal directions. Such, also, is the spray. (fig. 1232.) It has a 
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