DECIDUOUS TREES. 323 



and yet so well broken, as to render it one of the noblest of park 

 trees ; and when it grows wild amid the rocky scenery of its 

 native Scotland, there is no tree which produces so great or so 

 pleasing a variety of character." From the little we have seen 

 of the Scotch elm we are inclined to believe it to be the most 

 interesting foreign variety of the elm. The young trees of this 

 variety in the New York Central Park are certainly the most beauti- 

 ful of the elms there. 



The Scotch elm forms a much more spreading tree than the 

 English, has a squarer form than our white elm, and fills in more 

 massily with foliage. Without being quite so picturesque in out- 

 line, in its earlier growth, it certainly displays finer contrasts, and 

 larger masses of light and shadow. The leaves strongly resemble 

 those of our white elm. There are some remarkably pendulous 

 varieties, but the tree does not ordinarily show this quality when 

 young. With age, however, it becomes a characteristic, but not 

 to such a degree as m our native weeping elm ; and the more 

 rugged development of its branches adds to the apparent difference. 

 In dimensions it grows to equal the largest oaks. The varieties of 

 the Scotch elm are numerous, and vary in their character to an 

 extraordinary degree ; some of them being as pendulous as a weep- 

 ing beech, and others fastigiate and cup-like. The following are 

 the most note-worthy : 



The Weeping Scotch Elm. U. m. petidula. — This is the most 

 erratic and interesting variety, and takes the same place among 

 elms that the weeping |-'eech does in its family. It assumes a great 

 variety of forms ; sorr jtimes branching in a fan-like manner, some- 

 times marked by a persistent horizontal tendency, and occasionally 

 shooting perpendicularly downwards ; but always uneven or one- 

 sided, and picturesque. Like the weeping beech, in the first few years 

 of its growth it is sometimes picturesque to deformity ; but it soon 

 outgrows this stage of its eccentricity. The foliage is dark and 

 abundant, and it becomes a large tree. 



The Exeter or Ford's Elm. U. m. fastigiata. — Noted for its 

 very fastigiate growth and cup-like form. The leaves are twisted, 



