56 VALUE OF THE WYCH ELM. 



account, if it possessed no other merit, a more 

 general cultivation. The wych elm, though a rare 

 tree in some counties, seems more extensively 

 spread over England than the other species, and 

 adventures farther to the north. Ray tells us, on 

 the authority of Aubrey, that the common elm, 

 so called, is scarcely found indigenous northward 

 of Lincolnshire, whereas this species is found even 

 in Scotland. Our soil is very favourable to the 

 growth of both species. The wych elm affords a 

 tough and valuable wood for the wheeler and 

 the millwright; the bark from the young limbs 

 is stripped off in long ribands, and often used, 

 especially in Wales, for securing thatch, and for 

 various bindings and tyings, to which purpose its 

 flexible and tough nature renders it well adapted. 

 Gerard says, that arrows were made from the 

 wood of this tree, and he lived at a period when he 

 could well ascertain the fact, during the reign of 

 Elizabeth and her predecessor, before fire-arms 

 had superseded this truly British weapon : he was, 

 in the younger part of his life, gardener to the 

 great Lord Burleigh. That the wych elm, when 

 permitted, will attain large dimensions, is manifest 

 by the size of several we have observed in many 

 places ; but that gigantic one which grew in Staf- 

 fordshire exceeds in magnitude any other of this 

 species which we ever heard of. It required the 

 labour of two men for five days to fell it ; it was 

 forty yards in length, with a diameter of seventeen 

 feet at the butt ; yielding eight pair of naves, and 



