1858 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



between Palmyra and Marion, measures, at two feet above the ground, 33 ft. 10 in. 

 in circumference, and at five feet above the ground 20 ft. 10 in. It is 60 ft. to the 

 first limb ; and the total amount of lumber in the body of the tree is 16,250 board ft. 

 Eighty years ago, when the farm was cleared, this tree was left as a landmark. It 

 was then a giant amongst the surrounding forest trees. 



A very fine elm, presumably of this species, which differs much in habit from 

 any U. americana that I have seen, is figured and described 1 by Mr. T. H. 

 Hoskins, who, however, does not say what the species is. The tree is evidently a 

 relic of the original virgin forest, and grows near the highway at Derby Line close 

 to the Canadian boundary in Orleans County, Vermont. It has a clean bole for 

 more than half its height with a very small head, and measures 102 ft. in height 

 with a girth of 18 ft. 2 in. at five feet from the ground. 



To give an idea of the rapidity with which this species grows I may cite 

 Emerson, who says, 2 quoting from the N. E. Farmer, vii. 299, " An elm tree nearly 

 opposite the house of Heman Day, Esq., in West Springfield, was planted by him 

 on 8th January 1775, when it was a sapling carried in the hand. In 1829 the trunk 

 was 18 ft. in circumference to the height of 12 ft. above the ground, where it divides 

 into branches which overhang a circle of more than 300 ft. in circuit covering 7500 

 square ft. of area." It had thus grown 216 in. in girth in fifty-four years, or at a 

 rate of 4 in. a year. In 1845 tn ' s tree was carefully measured by a gentleman 

 at Springfield, who found it 7 ft. in diameter at three feet from the ground, and 7 ft. 

 4 in. at eleven feet. The spread of the top was 1 34 ft. 



Cultivation 



According to Loudon this tree was introduced to England by James Gordon 

 in 1752, though unnoticed in Miller's Dictionary published sixteen years later. It 

 appears to have been short lived, as none were to be found in Loudon's time either 

 at Kew or Syon, and the only specimens he mentions as then living in England 

 were young trees 15 to 30 ft. high in the Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick. 

 We have been able to recognise no old trees of it now in the country, and very few 

 young ones. Of these the best are those at Hargham, Norfolk, where they were 

 planted by Sir Thomas Beevor about 1854. Here there are now thirty trees 

 varying somewhat in habit. The largest of these is one of a group of 

 three by a sunk fence south-west of the house, and measured 85 ft. by 7^ ft. 

 in 191 1. Another in 1905 measured 68 ft. by 8 ft. 4 in. (Plate 392). A 

 third near the farm buildings has more spreading and drooping branches, some 

 of which have been broken by wind ; its leaves are thicker and more glabrous 

 than those of the others. I showed fresh specimens of these to Dr. N. L. 

 Britton of New York, who thought that they all belonged to U. americana. 

 I could find no suberous branchlets on any of these trees, but noticed on 24th 

 August 1909, that their leaves were much eaten by caterpillars, which had not 



1 Garden and Forest, v. 303, fig. 55 (1892). 

 2 Trees and Shrubs of Massachussets, ii. 332 (1875). 



