THE AMEKICAN ELM. 



I WILL confess that I join in the admiration so gen- 

 erally bestowed upon the American Elm. To me no other 

 tree seems so beautiful or so majestic. It does not 

 exhibit the sturdy ruggedness of the oak; it is not so 

 evidently defiant of wind and tempest. It seems, indeed, 

 to make no outward pretensions of strength. It bends to 

 the breeze which the oak defies, and is more seldom, there- 

 fore, broken by the wind. The Elm is especially the way- 

 side tree of New England, and it forms the most remark- 

 able feature of our domestic landscape. If there be in 

 any other section of our land as many, they are individu- 

 als mingled with the forest, and are not so frequent by the 

 roadsides. In this part of the country the Elm has been 

 planted and cherished from the earliest period of our his- 

 tory, and the inhabitants have always looked upon it with 

 admiration, and valued it as a landscape ornament above 

 every other species. It is the most drooping of the droop- 

 ing trees, except the willow, which it surpasses in gran- 

 deur and in the variety of its forms. 



Though the Elm has never been consecrated by the 

 muse of classic song, or dignified by making a figure in 

 the paintings of the old masters, the native inhabitant 

 of New England associates the varied forms of this tree 

 with all that is delightful in the scenery or memorable in 

 the history of our land. All spacious avenues are bor- 

 dered with elms, and their magnificent rows are every- 

 where familiar to his sight. He has seen them extending 

 their broad and benevolent arms over many a hospitable 



