DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 129 



eminent dignity and majesty among the trees of the forest. 

 Let us now claim for the elm the epithets graceful and 

 elegant. This tree is one of the noblest in the size of its 

 trunk, while the branches are comparatively tapering and 

 slender, forming themselves, in most of the species, into 

 long ana graceful curves. The flowers are of a chocolate 

 or purple color, and appear in the month of April, before 

 the leaves. The latter are light and airy, of a pleasing 

 light green in the spring, growing darker, however, as the 

 season advances. The elm is one of the most common 

 trees in both continents, and has been well known for its 

 beauty and usefulness since a remote period. In the 

 south of Europe, particularly in Lombardy, elm trees are 

 planted in vineyards, and the vines are trained in festoons 

 from tree to tree in the most picturesque manner. Tasso 

 alludes to this in the following stanza : 



" Come olmo, a cui la pampinosa pianta 

 Cupida s'avviticchi e si marite ; 

 Se ferro il tronca, o fulmine lo schianta 

 Trae seco a terra la compagna vite." 



Gerusalemme Liberata, 2. 326. 



It is one of the most common trees for public walks 

 and avenues, along the highways in France and Germany, 

 growing with great rapidity, and soon forming a widely 

 extended shade. In Europe, the elm is much used for 

 keels in ship-building, and is remarkably durable in water ; 

 more extensive use is made of it there than of the 

 American kinds in this country, though the wood of the 

 Red American elm is more valuable than any other in 

 the United States for the blocks used in ship rigging. 



For its graceful beauty the elm is? entitled to high 



