1382 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111. 
more regular appearance, not start- 
ing off at right angles, but forming 
its shoots more acutely with the 
parent branch; neither does the 
spray of the elm shoot, like the 
ash (fig. 1046. in p. 1222.), in re- 
gular pairs from the same knot, 
but in a kind of alternacy. It has 
generally, at first, a flat appearance ; 
but, as one year’s shoot is added to 
another, it has not strength to support itself; and, as the tree grows old, 
it often becomes pendent also, like the ash: whereas the toughness and 
strength of the oak enable it to stretch out its branches horizontally to the 
very last twig.” (Jébid., p. 113.) As an ornamental tree, it is used, both in 
Britain and on the Continent, more especially in France and Holland, for 
planting in avenues, particularly in public walks. . For this purpose it is well 
adapted, from the comparative rapidity of its growth in any soil, the straight- 
ness of its trunk, the facility with which it bears lopping, the denseness of 
its foliage, its hardiness, and its longevity. It has also the great advantage 
of requiring very little pruning, or care of any kind, after it has once been 
planted. There are many fine avenues of elms in France, particularly those in 
the Champs Elysées and at Versailles; and in Holland, at the Hague. In 
England, the principal public elm avenues are in St. James’s Park, and at 
Oxford and Cambridge; but there are also some very fine ones at gentle- 
men’s seats, especially at White Knights, Littlecote Hall, and Strathfieldsaye. 
Poetical and historical Allusions, The ancient poets frequently mention this 
tree, which, in common with many other barren trees, was devoted by them 
to the infernal gods. The Greeks and Romans considered all the trees which 
produced no fruit fit for human use as funereal trees. Homer alludes to this 
when he tells us, in the Ziad, that_Achilles raised a monument to the father of 
Andromache in the midst of a grove of elms. 
** Jove’s sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow 
A barren shade, and in his honour grow.” 
Ovid tells us that, when Orpheus returned to earth after his descent into 
the infernal regions, his lamentations for. the loss of Eurydice were so pathetic, 
that the earth opened, and the elm and other trees sprang up to give him 
shade. Virgil, in his Georgics, mentions that the Roman husbandmen bent the 
young elms, while growing, into the proper shape for the buris, or plough- 
tail. (See Georg.i. ver. 170.) The use, however, which the Romans made of 
the elm, as a prop to the vine, has given rise to the most numerous allusions 
to the tree by poets, not only ancient, but modern. Ovid makes Vertumnus 
allude to it, when he is recommending matrimony to Pomona. 
*¢ ¢ Tf that fair elm,’ he cried, ‘ alone should stand, 
No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand ; 
Or if that vine without her elm should grow, 
*T would creep, a poor neglected shrub, below.’ ” 
Milton, in describing the occupations of Adam and Eve in Paradise, says,— 
« They led the vine 
To,wed her elm: she, spoused, about him twines 
Her marriageable arms ; and with her brings 
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves.” 
Tasso has also alluded to this custom, in the beautiful lines beginning, 
“ Come olmo, a cui la pampinosa pianta,” in the 20th canto of La Gerusalemme 
Liberata. 
In the early ages of Christianity, the hunters were accustomed to hang the 
skins of the wolves they had killed in the chase on the elms in the church- 
yards, as a kind of trophy. 
Soil and Situation, “ Narrow-leaved English elms,” says Mitchell, “ abhor 
