AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



grown elm of this country has been cut; but it is still lumbered through- 

 out the whole eastern half of the United States. 



The finest elms of this country, and doubtless the finest in the 

 world, are the planted trees in some of the New England villages 

 The largest of them have been growing for two hundred years, and in 

 many instances they still show the vigor of youth. Trunks six or seven 

 feet through are not uncommon, but the glory of the trees is not alone in 

 the trunks. Their spread and form of crown are magnificent. The 

 largest are 150 feet across, and some of the splendid branches, rising in 

 parabolic curves, are fully 100 feet long, from the junction with the tree 

 to the tips of the twigs. The most apt comparison for that form of elm 

 is the spray of a fountain. The upward jet of water corresponds to the 

 trunk of the tree; the upward, outward, and downward curves of the 

 spray represent the crown of the elm. Trees which take that form are 

 grown in open ground where sunlight and air reach every side. Forest 

 grown trees are less symmetrical, but even in dense woods, the elm 

 frequently rises clear above the canopy of other trees, and develops the 

 fountain form of crown. The new England street and park elms surpass 

 those farther west only because they are older. The splendid trunks 

 and crowns are the work of centuries. 



