22 FOREST LIFE AND 



feet, giving an area of three hundred feet in circumference. Some 

 of the pendent branches, which drooped within a few feet of the 

 ground, I judged to be forty feet in length. These, stretched to 

 a horizontal position, would give a breadth of one hundred and 

 eighty feet to the top. Various opinions obtain respecting the 

 number of solid feet it contains, ranging from nine to eleven hund- 

 red. 



An old gentleman residing in the immediate vicinity, now 

 eighty years old, told us that he could very well remember it 

 when but a small tree, from which we infer its age to be about 

 one hundred years. It appears to be perfectly sound, and now 

 thrives as vigorously as a young sapling. It is a magnificent spec- 

 imen of the vegetable kingdom, majestically imposing, awaken- 

 ing in the spectator a feeling of veneration in spite of himself. 

 So ample is its wide-spreading Etruscan-shaped top, that at fifty 

 rods' distance (were the trunk hid) one might mistake it for a 

 group of twenty good-sized trees. 



" The Slippery Elm has a strong resemblance to the common 

 Elm. It has less of the drooping appearance, and is commonly 

 a much smaller tree." " The inner bark of this Elm contains a 

 great quantity of mucilage. Flour prepared from the bark, by 

 drying perfectly and grinding, and mixed with milk, like arrow- 

 root, is a wholesome and nutritious food for infants and invalids." 

 " Dr. Darlington says that, in the last war with Great Britain, 

 the soldiers on the Canada frontier found this, in times of scarcity 

 of forage, a grateful and nutritious food for their horses." 



1 The English Elm is said to have been introduced by importa- 

 tion, and planted by a wheel- wright for his own use in making 

 hubs for wheels, for which purpose they are probably superior to 

 any other wood known.' In its appearance it is said to have ' less 

 grace than the American Elm, but more stateliness and gran- 

 deur.' ' It is distinguished from the American Elm, also, by the 

 rough, broken character of its bark, which is darker, and also by 



