DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 105 



claim for the elm, the epithets, the elegant and the graceful. 

 This tree is one of the noblest in the size of its trunk, while 

 the branches are comparatively tapering and slender, forming 

 themselves, in most of the species, into long and graceful 

 curves. The flowers are of a chocolate or purple colour, and 

 appear in the month of April, before the leaves. The latter 

 are light and airy, of a pleasing light green in the spring, 

 growing darker, however, as the season advances. The elm 

 is one of the most common trees in both continents, and has 

 been well known for its beauty and usefulness since a remote 

 period. In the south of Europe, particularly in Lombardy, 

 elm trees are planted in vineyards, and the vines are trained 

 in festoons from tree to tree, in the most picturesque manner. 

 Tasso alludes to this in the following stanzas : 



" Come olino, a cui la pampinosa pianta 

 Cupida s'avviticchi e si marite ; 

 Se ferro il tronca, o fulmine lo scliiania 

 Trae seco a terra la coinpagna cite." 



GerusaUmme Liberdla. 2. 326. 



It is one of the most common trees for public walks and 

 avenues, along the highways in France and Germany, grow- 

 ing with great rapidity, and soon forming a wide extended 

 shade. In Europe, the elm is much used for keels in ship- 

 building, and is remarkably durable in water ; more exten- 

 sive use is made of it there than of the American kinds in 

 this country, though the wood of the Red American elm is 

 more valuable than any other in the United States, for the 

 blocks used in ship rigging. 



For its graceful beauty, the elm is entitled to high regard. 

 Standing alone as a single tree, or in a group of at most three 

 or four in number, it developes itself in all its perfection. 

 The White American elm we consider the most beautiful of 



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