It towered the giant of the wood, 



In a rich robe of emerald drest, 

 When launched upon the ocean flood, 



Columbus sought the west. 



It braved old winter's rudest shock 



When the storm-fiends their trumpets blew, 



When on stern Plymouth's hallowed rock 

 Landed the May-Flower's crew. 



It was the forest's pride, when came 



The Norsemen, borne grey ocean o'er, 

 And the Round Tower, long known to fame, 



Built on New England's shore, 



Within its hollow trunk are seen 



The smoky, blackened marks of fire, 

 Though In its top of loving green 



The wind still tunes its lyre. 



The Wetherseield Elm 



A fine old elm in the town of Wethersfield, Conn., is noted both 

 for its great size and its historic associations. It is the only surviving 

 member of a group of elms which figured in the early history of the 

 locality, and were, therefore, landmarks of special interest. 



The "wave of enthusiasm for civic beautification" which swept 

 through the towns and villages of Connecticut during the 17th cen- 

 tury, is thought to have resulted in the placing of a row of these 

 splendid shade trees down the centre of many a village street, and it is 

 believed that the "Great Elm" as it is called, was planted at that 

 time. 



Rising to a height of one hundred and ten feet, its branches 

 spreading one hundred and seventy-five feet, it is considered by many 

 to be the largest tree east of Yellowstone Park. Measurements taken 

 around its roots show a circumference of forty-one feet. 



During his tour of the colonies, Charles Wesley preached under 

 the old elm in 1750, making the spot a memorable one in the religious 

 history of the country. 



This tree has been more fortunate than many of its contempbries 

 in receiving the watchful care necessary to preserve it to attain a 

 great age. 



A "Great Elm" of West Virginia 



About sixteen miles north of Clarksburg, W. Va., the birthplace 

 of General Stonewall Jackson, stood, until 1910, another tree bearing 

 the title of "Great Elm." Also famed for its size, it was awarded a 

 prize as the largest of its kind in the United States. At the ground 

 level, including the spread of its roots, it measured forty-two feet in 

 circumference, three feet above the ground, its trunk was twenty- 

 seven feet around; one hundred and twenty feet high, its branches 

 reached over a circle of one hundred and forty feet. This tree is 

 commemorated in Mr. Granville Davissen Hall's stirring novel, "The 



From poem by W. H. C. Hosmer. 



43 



