HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 299 



The wintry winds had passed 



And swept an arm away, 

 And winter found a wound at last, 



In which to work decay. 



In good soil the English elm grows to an enormous 

 size, remaining perfectly solid to a good old age. We 

 remember the felling of a tree called " Piff's Elm," 

 on the high-road between Cheltenham and Tewkes- 

 bury, in which the bole measured 28 feet in circum- 

 ference at 4 feet from the ground, and we counted 

 198 rings of annual growth. Still, when grown in 

 poor gravelly soils and in the usual hedge mode, 

 in which they are periodically shrouded and crippled, 

 they often begin to decay in the centre at less than 

 twenty years of age. 



There are varieties of the V. campestris, which, as 

 they are not of any particular importance as timber 

 trees, need only be lightly touched upon in this 

 place. They are as follows : — 



1. Ulmus suberosa — Cork Elm, bark of the limbs exceedingly 



corky. 



2. Ulmus carpinifolia — Hornbeam-leaved Elm, leaves strongly- 



veined, serratures blunt ; branches nearly smooth. 



3. Ulmus stricta — Cornish Elm, leaves smooth and shining 



above, doubly serrated, with obtuse teeth ; branches 

 bright-brown, smooth, erect. 



4. Ulmus glabra — Small-leaved Elm, leaves small and smooth j 



branches pendulous. 



2. Ulmus montana.—Tlie Scotch Elm, the broad- 

 leaved elm (wych hazel) of most parts of England 

 and Scotland, is well distinguished by its large broad 

 leaves, hop-like fruits, large limbs diverging from 

 a less towering trunk at an obtuse aDgle, branches 

 2 a 2 



