58 TREE-PLANTING. 



eighty years, after which it has a tendency to become 

 hollow in the centre. It is this liability which pro- 

 duces the many gaps which are to be seen at times in 

 old avenues of elms leading up to stately mansions, 

 when, during heavy gales of wind, these unsound trees 

 are laid low. 



The Mountain or Wych Elm (U. Montana), This 

 tree has a shorter bole, and is more spreading in its 

 habit than the tall English elm, but is more 

 picturesque in appearance, and of hardier constitu- 

 tion, being a native of Scotland. It does not yield 

 suckers like the English elm, but is produced from 

 seed, which it yields freely. The blossoms appear in 

 April, just before the leaves burst out, and the seeds 

 are usually ripe about the middle of June, when it 

 is customary to gather them, and sow them at once 

 in rich fine soil. 



The seeds are very unequal in their power of 

 germinating, one-half perhaps not coming to anything, 

 which must be borne in mind by the horticulturist 

 who needs to raise plants, which will stand in the 

 first place about two inches apart. The seeds should 

 be covered with about half an inch depth of soil, and 

 in dry weather the beds should be shaded and watered. 

 A week after sowing the seed the plants will appear, 

 when they will require no further care than to be kept 

 free from weeds. In the following winter or early in 

 spring they are generally removed into nursery lines, 

 but this is not strictly necessary in the case of the 

 Wych elm, for when they do not stand too close, 

 which is often the case, resulting from inequality of 

 the seed, they are sometimes allowed to remain 

 two summers without being removed. Two years is 



