138 C 2 ARBORETUM AND F R UTU l.TUM. I'AllT 



more regular appearance, not start- 

 ing off at right angles, but forming 

 its shoots more acutely with the 

 parent branch ; neither does the 

 spray of the elm shoot, like the 

 ash "(fig. 1046. in p. 1222.), in re- 

 gular pairs from the same knot, 

 but in a kind of alternacy. It has 

 generally, at first, a flat appearance ; 

 but, as one year's shoot is added to 

 another, it has not strength to support itself; and, as the tree grows old, 

 it often becomes pendent also, like the ash: whereas the toughness and 

 strength of the oak enable it to stretch out its branches horizontally to the 

 very last twig." (Ibid., p. 113.) As an ornamental tree, it is used, both in 

 Britain and on the Continent, more especially in France and Holland, for 

 planting in avenues, particularly in public walks. For this purpose it is well 

 adapted, from the comparative rapidity of its growth in any soil, the straight- 

 ness of its trunk, the facility with which it bears lopping, the denseness of 

 its foliage, its hardiness, and its longevity. It has also the great advantage 

 of requiring very little pruning, or care of any kind, after it has once been 

 planted. There are many fine avenues of elms in France, particularly those in 

 the Champs Ely sees and at Versailles ; and in Holland, at the Hague. In 

 England, the principal public elm avenues are in St. James's Park, and at 

 Oxford and Cambridge ; but there are also some very fine ones at gentle- 

 men's seats, especially at White Knights, Littlecote Hall, and Strathfieldsaye. 

 Poetical and historical Allusions. The ancient poets frequently mention this 

 tree, which, in common with many other barren trees, was devoted by them 

 to the infernal gods. The Greeks and Romans considered all the trees which 

 produced no fruit fit for human use as funereal trees. Homer alludes to this 

 when he tells us, in the Iliad, that Achilles raised a monument to the father of 

 Andromache in the midst of a grove of elms. 



" Jove's sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow 

 A barren shade, and in his honour grow." 



Ovid tells us that, when Orpheus returned to earth after his descent into 

 the infernal regions, his lamentations for the loss of Eurydice were so pathetic, 

 that the earth opened, and the elm and other trees sprang up to give him 

 shade. Virgil, in his Gcorgics, mentions that the Roman husbandmen bent the 

 young elms, while growing, into the proper shape for the bitris, or plough- 

 tail. (See Georg. i. ver. 170.) The use, however, which the Romans made of 

 the elm, as a prop to the vine, has given rise to the most numerous allusions 

 to the tree by poets, not only ancient, but modern. Ovid makes Vertumnus 

 allude to it, when he is recommending matrimony to Pomona. 



" ' If that fair elm,' he cried, ' alone should stand, 



No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand ; 

 Or if that vine without her elm should grow, 

 'Twould creep, a poor neglected shrub, below.' " 



Milton, in describing the occupations of Adam and Eve in Paradise, says, 



" They led the vine 



To.wed her elm : she, spoused, about him twines 

 Her marriageable arms; and with her brings 

 Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 

 His barren leaves." 



Tasso has also alluded to this custom, in the beautiful lines beginning, 

 " Comeolmo, a cui la pampinosa pianta," in the 20th canto of La Germalemme 

 Liberata. 



In the early ages of Christianity, the hunters were accustomed to hang the 

 skins of the wolves they had killed in the chase on the elms in the church- 

 yards, as a kind of trophy. 



Soil and Situation. " Narrow-leaved English elms," says Mitchell, "abhor 



