320 



DECIDUOUS TREES. 



that our weeping elm does not develop 

 its greatest beauty except in alluvial 

 soils, and that it suffers everywhere near 

 the seacoast from the persistent attacks 

 of leaf-worms and borers. 



The English elm differs materially 

 from our weeping elm in leaves, trunk, 

 and manner of branching. The leaves 

 are smaller, more regularly and sharply 

 cut, and darker; and the bark is also 

 much darker colored. In the ramification of 

 the branches it is peculiar. 'I'he first diver- 

 FiG. I02. gence usually occurs at ten to twelve feet above 



the ground ; and these branches, instead of 

 ascending and forming a sharp angle with the trunk, like those 

 of our weeping elm, strike out unevenly, nearly at right angles with 

 the trunk, and with age maintain their superior importance to the 

 branches that diverge above them, notwithstanding the tree usually 

 maintains a central trunk to a considerable height. This projection 

 of massive low-growing branches, as shown in the accompanying 

 sketch, Fig. 102, gives the English elm a much grander expression 

 when seen from below than our white elm, the branches of which 

 are apt to diverge with such even-sized multiplicity that none of 

 them are of great size ; and one is not fully impressed with their 

 grandeur until standing at such a distance from the tree that the 

 great verdant arc which the branches describe can be seen as a 

 whole. This is not always the case, as many old white elms ramify 

 into a few great branches ; but if one will find contiguous avenues 

 of the English and the American elm, the different effect upon the 

 eye of the forms above alluded to, will be found verj^ striking. 

 Another peculiarity that increases this difference of expression is 

 the tufty habit of the English elm, which forms little masses of 

 leaves at the knots and intersections of old branches, adding by 

 the contrast of their young twigs and verdure a greater apparent 

 massiveness to the branches they grow upon. Though this elm 

 is marked by a greater weight of lower branches than our native 

 favorite, it does not usually spread so broadly. After insuring the 



