AMERICAN ELM. 513 



to salute the early spring with its light and cheerful green, which, though dis- 

 cordant at first with the gloomy hue of the pines and firs, partakes of a darker tint. 

 as the season advances, and unites in harmony with their unchanged boughs. In 

 autumn, also, before the nightly frosts and chilly winds have done their work, 

 the bright golden foliage of the elm kindly mixes with the various hues of the 

 poplar and the maples, which display all shades of red, from the deepest crimson 

 to the brightest orange; a tint that contrasts agreeably, at this season, with the 

 pale-yellow, sober foliage of the birch and the beech, with the different shades of 

 brown in the bass-wood and the ash, or with the buff-yellow of the larch. Th* 

 beech, the ash, and the larch, however, do not, in general, take much part in this 

 gorgeous pageant. The ash is chiefly leafless at this time, and its glory has 

 passed away before the other two have scarcely begun to fade. Indeed, " the 

 glossy green of the beech is perhaps more effective than if it partook of the gen- 

 eral change ; and even the gloomy blackness of the resiniferous trees, by reliev- 

 ing and throwing forward the gayer tints, is not without effect." 



In America, particularly in New England, the elm is very generally adopted 

 as an ornamental tree for lining streets, high-ways, &c, and as such, there are 

 but few others more appropriate. 



65 



