TREES AND SHRUBS 173 



There is a very wide range of variation among 

 American elms, notably in the size of the leaves, 

 and the openness or compactness of growth, and 

 in the weeping habit. 



The variation is so great that it is never wise 

 to plant a row of seedling elms along a street or 

 roadside. It is much better in the interest of 

 uniformity to secure trees that have been grafted. 



The slippery elm, which grows in the same 

 regions ^vith the common American species, is a 

 tree of more compact growth, but on the whole 

 not to be compared with the other species. There 

 are natural hybrids, however, between the Amer- 

 ican elm and the slippery elm that exceed either 

 parent in size, and sometimes are of surpassing 

 beauty. 



The largest tree that I have ever seen in New 

 England, and perhaps the largest elm that ever 

 grew, was one that grew in Lancaster, my boy- 

 hood home, and which I have every reason to 

 believe was a hj^brid. 



As I was born and brought up under the elm, 

 I have naturally an affection for them greater 

 perhaps than for any other tree. Branches were 

 once secured of the gigantic hybrid, while on a 

 visit to my old home, and brought to California 

 and grafted on roots of a seedling of the Ameri- 

 can elm on my home place at Santa Rosa. 



