ELEPHANT'S FOOT ELM TREE. 



413 



and the other shoulder-blade was found at a short 

 distance. The head remained covered by the dried 

 skin, and the pupil of the eye was still distinguishable. 

 The brain also remained within the skull, but a good 

 deal shrunk and dried up, and one of the ears was in 

 excellent preservation, still retaining: a tuft of strong 

 bristly hair. The upper lip was a good deal eaten 

 away, and the under lip was entirely gone, so that the 

 teeth were distinctly seen. The animal was a male, 

 and had a long mane on its neck. The skin was ex- 

 tremely thick and heavy, and as much of it remained 

 as required the exertions of ten men to carry away, 

 which they did with considerable difficulty. More 

 than thirty pounds' weight of the hair and bristles of 

 this animal were gathered from the wet sand-bank, 

 having been trampled into the mud by the white 

 bears while devouring the carcase. Some of the hair 

 was presented to our Museum of Natural History, by 

 M. Targe, censor in the Lyceum of Charlemagne. 

 It consists of three distinct kinds. One of these is 

 stiff black bristles, a foot or more in length ; another 

 is thinner bristles, or coarse flexible hair, of a reddish 

 brown colour ; and the third is a coarse reddish brown 

 wool, which grew among the roots of the long hair. 

 These afford an undeniable proof that this animal had 

 belonged to a race of elephants inhabiting a cold 

 region, with which we are now unacquainted, and by 

 no means fitted to dwell in the torrid zone. It is also 

 evident, that this enormous animal must have been 

 frozen up by the ice at the moment of its death. Mr. 

 Adams, who bestowed the utmost care in collecting 

 all the parts of the skeleton of this animal, proposes 

 to publish an exact account of its osteology, which 

 must be an exceedingly valuable present to the philo- 

 sophical world. In the meantime, from the drawing 

 (says Cuvier) which I have now before me, I have 

 every reason to believe that the sockets of the teeth 

 of this northern elephant have the same proportional 

 lengths with those of other fossil elephants, of which 

 the entire skulls have been found in other places. 

 Many curious and important facts are presented by 

 the geographical distribution of remains of this spe- 

 cies. They have been dug up in most of the coun- 

 tries of Europe, from the Mediterranean sea to the 

 Arctic circle. The greatest abundance of them occur 

 in Asiatic Russia. In the European isles they have 

 also been found, in Iceland, and several parts of Great 

 Britain and Ireland ; and their bones have even been 

 dug up in North and South America, and in Hudson's 

 Bay. We have given these particulars of the fossil 

 elephant, as well as of the living ones, rather more at 

 length than we can afford to do in the case of most 

 subjects, partly on account of the direct interest of 

 the subjects themselves, and partly because of the 

 mistakes respecting them, which are still current 

 among many people. 



ELEPHANT'S FOOT is the Testudmaria ele- 

 phantipes of Burchell. It is a native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and remarkable for having the collet or 

 crown of the roots swollen to a very large size, and 

 covered with a tesselated bark of very curious sfruc- 

 ture. Both roots and stems are comparatively slender 

 and fugitive ; but the tuberous body is very durable, 

 there being some individuals at the Cape which indicate 

 two hundred years growth. A new layer of liber being 

 added every year, these may be easily counted on the 

 edges of the fractured portions of the exterior surface. 



ELEPHANTOPUS (Linnams). A genus of West 

 Indian herbaceous perennials, met with in stove col- 



lections, but of no great beauty. It belongs to Com- 

 posite, and is easily propagated by cuttings struck in 

 sand. 



ELICHRYSUM, an exploded genus of plants of 

 Willdenow's, now included in that of ASTELMA, which 

 see. 



ELK. See the article DEER for a full description 

 of this animal. 



ELLIPSOSTOMATA (De Blainville). This 

 forms the third family of the second order Asiphono- 

 branchiata ; second class Paracephalophora. The 

 general character of the shells forming this family is 

 that of possessing a longitudinal oval aperture, some- 

 times transversely and completely closed by a cal- 

 careous or horny operculum. The form of these shells 

 varies, and they are generally smooth. The family 

 is constituted of the genera Melania, Rissoa, Phasian- 

 ella, Ampullaria, Helicina, and Pleurocerus. 



ELMlDvE. A family of minute coleopterous in- 

 sects belonging to the section Pentamera and subsec- 

 tion Philhydrida, being of short form, and having the 

 legs formed for crawling, and the tarsal claws large ; 

 the palpi are short and the head inflexed. There 

 are two genera, Georyssus, Latreille, and Elmis, 

 (Limnius, Miiller), of which the species are found 

 under stones at the bottom of running brooks. In 

 this situation the larvae also reside. The writer has 

 taken some of the species of Elmis from stones in 

 water a yard deep. The structure of the organs of 

 respiration of these sub-aquatic species offers a very 

 interesting subject of research. 



ELM TREE is the English name of the different 

 species of the genus Ulmus of Linnaeus. The elm is 

 one of our principal timber trees for usefulness, rank- 

 ing next to the oak. There are nineteen species 

 already described, six of them marked as natives of 

 Britain. The most valuable of all, U. campestris, the 

 common English elm, although completely naturalised, 

 is certainly not a native, as it is never met with in 

 forests, nor ever far from buildings, or marking the 

 place where buildings have formerly stood. Neither 

 does it ripen seeds in this country, showing that it is 

 a native of a warmer climate. 



It has been stated that the English elm was intro- 

 duced into this country from Palestine during the 

 crusades ; but however this might have been, it is 

 very probable, from present appearances, that there 

 was once a time when it was very fashionable to plant 

 this tree. The oldest and finest specimens are met 

 with in the near neighbourhood of palaces, noblemen 

 and gentlemen's country-seats, and dotted over the 

 hedge-rows belonging to these residences. Some- 

 times we see them shading the old manor-house, or 

 sheltering the farm homestead, formerly the abode of 

 the wealthy yeoman, though now of a tenant who 

 cares nothing about trees. 



Elm timber is less dural,'5 than oak, either standing 

 or after being converted vo use. The tree arrives at 

 a great height with proportionate diameter of stem ; 

 but after three or four score *"*.ars, especially on light 

 soils, the bole begins to decay at the heart, and which 

 decay proceeds rapidly outwards till the trunk be- 

 comes a mere shell, in which state it will, however, 

 live and be increased in diameter for many years, 

 although quite hollow within. 



This species is a very ornamental tree in all its 

 stages, more especially after it has acquired its natu- 

 ral character and specific habit, and the older it is 

 the more picturesque it becomes. When planted for 



