CHAP. CI. JTLMA^CE^. t/lMUS. J 38 1 



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 Evcli/n, i. p. 1 14.) 

 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. {WcrnecJc). 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 i:)laces been given 

 to silkworms ; and, in both France and 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 kilu-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- 

 tivae 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 eiins 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 r.evc* 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 

 and the ash. Nor is its foliage, shadowing as it is, 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 s|)eaking, 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 eliu 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. 4.3.) " The elm throws 

 out a beautiful bloom, in the form of a spicated ball, about tlie 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." (/ii(i?., p. 114.) "The branch of the elm has neither the 

 strength nor the various abrupt twistiflgs of the oak ; nor does it shoot so 

 much in horizontal directions. Such, also, is the sprav. {fig- 1232.) It has a 



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