EUROPEAN OR FIELD ELM. 49 i 
Virgil, in his "Georgics," mentions that the Roman husbandmen bent the young 
elms, while growing, into the proper shape for the btirys, or plough-tail, 
" Young Elms with early force in copses bow, 
Fit for the figure of the crooked plough." 
The elm was planted by the Romans for supporting the vine; and it is still so 
employed, along with the Lombardy poplar, in the south of Italy. Columella 
informs us that vineyards, with elm-trees as props were named " arbusta," the 
vines themselves being called " arbustivse vitis," to distinguish them from others 
raised in more confined situations. Once in two years, the elms were carefully 
pruned, to prevent their leaves from overshadowing the grapes; and this opera- 
tion being deemed of great importance, Corydon is reproached by \ irgil, for the 
double neglect of suffering both his elms and vines to remain unpruned, 
" Simiputata tibi frondosa vilis in ulmo est." 
Your vine half-pruned upon the leafy elm. 
The use, however, which the Romans made of the elm, as a prop to the vine, has 
given rise to the most numerous allusions to this tree by the poets, not only 
ancient, but modern. Ovid makes Vertumnus allude to it, when he is recommeo 1- 
ing matrimony to Pomona, 
tt i 
If that fair elm,' he cried, 'alone should stand, 
No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand ; 
Or if that vine without her elm should grow, 
'T would creep, a poor neglected shrub, below.' " 
Milton, in describing the occupations of Adam and Eve, in Paradise, says 
"They led the vine 
To wed her elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 
Her marriageable arms; and with her brings 
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves." 
Tasso alludes to the same custom, in the passage, 
" The married elm fell with his fruitful vine." 
And Beaumont, when he says, 
" The amorous vine . 
Did with the fair and straight-limbed Elm entwine. 
Wordsworth, also, speaks of it, in that beautiful reflection, the "Pillar of Trajan,"- 
" So pleased with purple clusters to entwine 
Some lofty Elm-tree, mounts the daring vine." 
Cowner very accurately sketches the variety of form in the elm, and alludes to 
{he iuTerenTStes where it is to be found In the "Task,' he first introdn, 
this tree rearing its lofty head by the river s brink 
"Then\ fast rooted in bis bank, 
Stand, never overlooked, out favourite eura, 
That screen the herdsman's soliur> QUI 
Then he gives an enchanting scene, where a lowly cot is surrounded by tins, 
trees, a (T jg hed upon lhl . ,, r ,.,. wn-top, tat cioso 
Environed with B ring of branching elms, 
That overhang the thatch." 
And he then introduces us to a grove of elms, 
"Thr- grove receive! in ne*l ; 
Between the uprigbl ' 'I' * 
We may discern the thlBflhat at hU task. 
