8^7 



constant characters between our Hampshire elms, and I am glad to 

 see that Mr. Babington coincides in the opinion I arrived at some 

 years ago, that all our British species of this genus may without risk 

 of error be reduced to two, as shown above — namely, U. suberosa and 

 U. m on tan a (U. campestris, L.) — the former with all its varieties 

 marked by a disposition to emit suckers or stools from the root, and 

 even from the trunk, to a considerable height from the ground, and 

 by which it is mainly propagated, the seed, perhaps from this cause, 

 seldom coming to perfection, but dropping whilst yet green, the bark 

 in all the forms deeply cracked or rifted, and the younger branches 

 often winged or corky. In U. montana and its varieties, U. glabra 

 &c, the bark is smoother, and the tree produces few or no suckers, 

 being increased by the fruit, which ripens perfectly. The late Mr. 

 Knight, of Downton Castle, as I learn from Mr. Bentham, raised se- 

 veral of the supposed species of elm from the seed of one kind alone. 

 An elm with erect or ascending branches, and fastigiate growth like 

 a black poplar, very small, narrow, firm, subpersistent and shining 

 leaves, grows about St. John's and at Brooklands, near Ryde, which 

 I take to be the U. stricta (Cornish Elm) of Lindley, but is not indi- 

 genous, and I hold it to be a form of U. suberosa allied to Smith's 

 campestris. 



A remarkable fact in the natural history of the elm is the occasional 

 partial or total suppression of the flowers at their season for appear- 

 ing. In the spring of 1839, scarcely a tree could be found in bloom, 

 either of U. suberosa or montana, in this island and elsewhere in Eng- 

 land,* although the year before the branches were loaded with flowers, 

 which were again tolerably profuse in 1840. The largest Wych Elm 

 in Quarr Copse, standing amongst many free flowerers of its own spe- 

 cies, although perfectly vigorous, has never shown any disposition to 

 blossom since I have known it. The Wych Elm, like the Sycamore 

 maple {Acer Pseudo-platanus), is far from attaining the gigantic pro- 

 portions in this county it reaches more to the north, and in the west 

 of England, the climate of the south-east being rather too warm and 

 dry for both these trees to reach their highest perfection, but U. 

 suberosa is in Hampshire and other southern counties the successful 

 rival of the oak in girth, and commonly far surpasses it in altitude ; 

 the wood, though commonly made subservient to the coarser pur- 

 poses of the wheelwright and undertaker, shows a good grain when 



* As about London and in Essex, as I learned from the late Mr. E. Forster, and 

 probably all over the kingdom. 



