90 THE AMERICAN ELM. 



sions, as observed in a palm-tree. A remarkable trait in 

 the character of the Elm is, that, unlike other trees, it 

 seldom loses its beauty, and is often improved in shape, 

 by growing while young in a dense assemblage. It is 

 simply modified into a more slender shape, usually sub- 

 divided very near the ground into several branches that 

 diverge but little until they reach the summit of the wood. 

 Other trees, when they have grown in a dense wood, form 

 but a single shaft, without lateral branches. 



THE PLUME. 



The most singular of the forms assumed by the Elm, 

 and which cannot be regarded as of a normal character, 

 is the plume, caused by some peculiar conditions attend- 

 ing its early growth. The shaft is sometimes double, but 

 usually not divided at all, except into two or three small 

 branches at its very summit. It is perpendicular to near 

 three fourths of its height, and then bends over, like one 

 of the outer branches of a normal-shaped Elm. This 

 whole tree, whether double or single, is covered from the 

 ground to its summit with a dense embroidery of vine-like 

 twigs that cluster round it in all ways, often inverted, as 

 if it were covered with a woody vine. The cause of this 

 form seems to be the removal of the tree into an uncon- 

 genial soil, that is too scanty and innutritions to sustain 

 a healthy growth. Yet I have seen some trees of this 

 shape in clearings. They do not seem to be diseased, 

 yet they are evidently in a stunted condition. One of 

 the most remarkable of the plume elms which I have 

 seen stands in the northern part of Danvers, near the 

 point where the Essex Eailroad crosses the Ipswich Eiver. 

 I have observed a similar habit of growth in some Eng- 

 lish elms, but their shaft is always perpendicular. 



