BROAD-LEAVED ELM. 15 



loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it 

 mingles with the forest ; and will produce little 

 without the assistance of lime and turnips. 



LETTER II. 



TO THE SAME. 



IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm 

 to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, 

 stood within these twenty years a broad-leaved 

 elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro * of 

 Ray, which, though it had lost a considerable lead- 

 ing bough in the great storm in the year 1703, 

 equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained 

 eight loads of timber; and being too bulky for a 

 carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, 

 where it measured near eight feet in the diameter, f 



extending by degrees in circumference and up the stem, until 

 the lower part of it becomes entirely deprived of vegetation, and 

 assumes a tough and corky appearance. This extends to the 

 whole plant, which gradually decays and dies. On the same 

 soil the oak grows and thrives well. 



The "freestone " to which Mr. White refers, is the white or 

 grey, and may have a different effect on these trees. W. J. 



* The ulmus montana, Sir J. E. Smith, and the most com- 

 mon in Scotland. There are four additional species admitted 

 into the Flora of Great Britain, which are now to be generally 

 met with in the plantations that have been made within the last 

 twelve or fifteen years. W. J. 



f The dimensions here alluded to are insignificant, when 

 compared with those of a wych elm recorded by Mr. Evelyn, 

 growing in Sir Walter Baggot's park, in the county of Stafford, 

 which, after two men had been five days felling, lay 40 yards 

 in length, and was at the stool 17 feet diameter. It broke in 

 the fall, 14 loads of wood ; 48 in the top : yielding 8 pair of 



