THE HORNBEAM 23 



pulleies for mills, and such like deuises, than El me or Wich 

 Hazell ; for in time it waxeth so hard, that the tonghnesse and 

 hardnesse of it may be rather, compared vnto horn than vnto 

 wood, and therefore it was called Hornebeame, or Hardbeame ; 

 the leaues hereof are like the Elme, sauing that they be 

 tenderer; among those hang certain triangled things, vpon which 

 be found knaps, or little heads of the bignesse of Ciches. in 

 which is contained the fruit or seed ; the root is strong and 

 thicke. . . . The Hornebeam tree is called in Greek (vyla, 

 which is as if you should say Coniualis, or belonging to the yoke, be- 

 cause it serneth well to make vyia. of, in Latine, Juga, yokes where- 

 with oxen are yoked together, which are also euen at this time made 

 thereof . . . and therefore it may be Englished Yoke Elme." . . . 



From this passage, Yoke-elm. Avould seem to be 

 one of Gerard's many coinages ; but the scientific 

 name Carpinus has also been derived from the 

 Celtic " car," wood, and " pen " or " pin," a head, 

 though another suggestion is the Latin " carpen- 

 tum," a chariot, the Swedish " karm," which 

 closely approaches " charme," the French name for 

 the tree. The wood, which is normally white, 

 hard, tough, rather cross-grained, strong, light, and 

 flexible, is also used for other agricultural im- 

 plements, for the screws of presses, cog- 

 wheels, and tool-handles, and furnishes an excel- 

 lent gunpowder charcoal. The modern German 

 name for the tree, " Hainbuche," refers to another 

 use to which Hornbeam has long been put. As 

 it will stand a great amount of pruning, so long 

 as this is not done in spring, when the tree is 

 likely to suffer from the bleeding that results from 

 the rising sap, it is a favourite tree for hedgerows, 

 known in French as " charmilles " ; and since the 

 dead leaves remain late on the branches, rustling 

 crisply in the autumn gales, but resisting all the 



