504 ULMUS AMERICANA. 
Mr. Jarnes Gordon ; though, as Martyn observes, no notice was taken of it, or of 
any other American elm, in the edition of Miller's " Dictionary," which was 
published sixteen years afterwards. It has doubtless existed in the arboretum at 
Kew, and probably, in the grounds at Syon, but it is not to be found of much 
magnitude, at present, in either of these collections. There are trees, however, 
in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, and in the Edinburgh botanic 
garden, which exceed thirty feet in height. The American elm seldom flowers 
in England, and never ripens its seeds. 
Seeds of the Ulmus americana were sent to France by M. Michaux, in 1807, 
from which several thousand plants were raised; and, of which, according to 
the " Nouveau Du Hamel," there are very fine specimens at Trianon, where 
they are distinguished from all other elms by the superior beauty of their leaves. 
In America, the "favourite elm," and several other native trees, are insepara- 
bly connected with the history of the country. They forcibly appeal to the 
imaginations of the people, not only by being associated with the sports of child- 
hood, the coming and singing of birds, and with the haunts of young men and 
maidens, fondly and joyously traced in by-gone days ; but they teach lessons of 
wisdom to aged and hoary-headed men bespeak their country's wrongs their 
country's glory, and tell them much concerning the mutability of things below. 
Had these trees the gifts of reason and speech, or could their " leaves form words 
when shaken by the wind," how many tales of loves and woes of human suf- 
fering and human joys would they unfold. But, as these ancient tenants of the 
soil are not endowed with voice and memory, let us be ourselves the oracles, and 
discourse to our own ears upon some of the events which have transpired within 
the dim vista of two hundred years. 
penn's treaty elm. 
"With kind, assuring words, 
And answering deeds, he binds the deathless chain 
Of friendship; and though o'er his silent grave, 
Time long hath wander'd, still at the blest name 
Of the beloved Miquon, starts the tear 
Of Indian gratitude." 
Traits op the Aborigines. 
Towards the close of the year 1682, the commissioners, who accompanied the 
first detachment of colonists to Pennsylvania, had, in compliance with the pro- 
prietary's instructions, negotiated a treaty with the neighbouring tribes of Indians, 
for the purchase of the lands which they were to occupy, and for the assurance 
of perpetual peace and friendship between the two races of people. " The relig- 
ious principles of Penn," says his biographer, " which led him to the practice of 
the most scrupulous morality, did not permit him to look upon the king's patent, 
or legal possession according to the laws of England, as sufficient to establish his 
right to the country, without purchasing it by fair and open bargain of the na- 
tives, to whom it properly belonged. He had instructed commissioners, who 
arrived in America before him, to buy it of the latter, and to make with them a 
treaty of eternal friendship. This, those commissioners had done, and now, by 
mutual agreement between him and the Indian chiefs, it was to be solemnly rati- 
fied. He proceeded, therefore, accompanied by his friends, consisting of men, 
women, and young persons of both sexes, to Coaquannoc, the Indian name for 
the place where Philadelphia now stands. On his arrival, he found the sachems 
and their tribes assembling. They were seen through the woods, as far as the 
eye could reach, and looked frightfully, both on account of their number and 
their arms. The Quakers are reported to have been but a handful in comparison, 
and without any weapon ; so that dismay and terror must have seized them, had 
they not confided in the righteousness of their cause. It is much to be regretted, 
