68 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



ones. Hamerton notes that "the elm has an 

 advantage over some other trees in showing 

 its trunk and limbs well, even when enriched 

 with abundant foliage," and that though the 

 leaves are small, "the foliage is fine in mass, 

 especially when many elms are seen together". 

 Evelyn describes it as "a tree of consort, soci- 

 able, and so affecting to grow in company, 

 that the very best I have ever seen do almost 

 touch one another : this also protects them 

 from the winds, and causes them to shoot of 

 an extraordinary height ; so as in little more 

 than forty years they even arrive to a load of 

 timber ; provided they be sedulously and care- 

 fully cultivated, and the soil propitious. For 

 an elm does not thrive so well in the forest, as 

 where it may enjoy scope for the roots to 

 dilate and spread in the sides, as in hedge-rows 

 and avenues, where they have the air likewise 

 free." He also says of it: "The elm is by 

 reason of its aspiring and tapering growth 

 (unless it be topped to enlarge the branches, 

 and make them spread low) the least offensive 

 to corU; and pasture -grounds, to both which, 

 and the cattle, they afford a benign shade, de- 

 fence and agreeable ornament". We have 



