84 FAMILIAR TREES 



It must perhaps be admitted that at midsummer 

 all Elms are dull in colour, and not seldom heavy in 

 outline. It is in spring and autumn that they are of 

 most picturesque value in the landscape; and it is 

 important that the beauties presented by them and 

 by other trees at these seasons should be recognised 

 alike by the artist and by the landscape gardener. 

 The tree planter has the immense advantage over 

 the painter that his materials are already blended 

 by Nature ; and imagination can suggest few colour 

 effects more harmonious than those she presents in 

 the vinous tufts of staminate flowers on the boughs 

 of the Elm in March, its pale green fruit clusters a 

 little later, or the October change to a clear lemon 

 yellow spreading from bough to bough, each leaf 

 paling to a pellucid grass-green as the autumnal tint 

 encroaches upon its margin. 



The Wych Elm grows more rapidly than the 

 Common Elm, and its wood is consequently far 

 inferior in hardness and compactness, besides being 

 more liable to split. Statements to the contrary 

 have arisen from the confusion in Scotland and 

 the North ot England of the spongy-timbered 

 Cork Elm (U. subero'sa Mcench) with the true 

 Common Elm {U. suberosa Stokes), which occurs 

 but rarely north of the Trent. The wood of 

 the Wych Elm is, however, tough, straight-grained, 

 and, when steamed, flexible, so that it is employed by 

 boat-builders and cartwrights, and in making pumps. 

 As it does not splinter, but becomes smooth from 

 constant wear, it is also sometimes used for rollers, 

 for the handles of spades, etc., and for wheel- barrows , 



