THE ELM. 



95 



Elm Ulmus campestris. 



Mountain Elm (Ulmus montana), called wych-hazel, 

 or wych-elm in some parts of England, and cor- 

 rupted to " witch elm." The timber of this is some- 

 times described as being inferior to that of the elm 

 of the plains in closeness and strength; but the 

 ancient statute enjoining the use of bows, in which 

 the wych-hazel is mentioned, and the elm not, is 

 against that hypothesis. 



The elm attains a large size, and lives to a great 

 age. Mention is made of one planted by Henry IV. 

 of France, which was standing at the Luxembourg 

 at the commencement of the French Revolution. 

 One at the upper end of Church-lane, Chelsea, (said 

 to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth,) was felled 

 in 1745. It was thirteen feet in circumference at 

 the bottom, and* one hundred and ten feet high. 

 Piffes' elm, near the Boddington Oak, in the vale of 

 Gloucester, was, in 1783, about eighty feet high, and 

 the smallest girth of the principal trunk was sixteen 

 feet. From the planting of Sir Francis Bacon's 

 elms, in Gray's Inn walks, in 1600, and their decay 

 about 1720, one would be disposed to assign the 



