22 FOREST LIFE AND 



feet, giving an area of three hundred feet in circumference. Some 

 of the pendent branches, which drooped within a few feet of the 

 ground, I judged to be forty feet in length. These, stretched to 

 a horizontal position, would give a breadth of one hundred and 

 eighty feet to the top. Various opinions obtain respecting the 

 number of solid feet it contains, ranging from nine to eleven hund- 

 red. 



An old gentleman residing in the immediate vicinity, now 

 eighty years old, told us that he could very well remember it 

 when but a small tree, from which we infer its age to be about 

 one hundred years. It appears to be perfectly sound, and now 

 thrives as vigorously as a young sapling. It is a magnificent spec- 

 imen of the vegetable kingdom, majestically imposing, awaken- 

 ing in the spectator a feeling of veneration in spite of himself. 

 So ample is its wide-spreading Etruscan-shaped top, that at fifty 

 rods' distance (were the trunk hid) one might mistake it for a 

 group of twenty good-sized trees. 



" The Slippery Elm has a strong resemblance to the common 

 Elm. It has less of the drooping appearance, and is commonly 

 a much smaller tree." " The inner bark of this Elm contains a 

 great quantity of mucilage. Flour prepared from the bark, by 

 drying perfectly and grinding, and mixed with milk, like arrow- 

 root, is a wholesome and nutritious food for infants and invalids." 

 "Dr. Darlington says that, in the last war with Great Britain, 

 the soldiers on the Canada frontier found this, in times of scarcity 

 of forage, a grateful and nutritious food for their horses." 



' The English Elm is said to have been introduced by importa- 

 tion, and planted by a wheel- wright for his own use in making 

 luibs for wheels, for which purpose they are probably superior to 

 any other wood known.' In its appearance it is said to have ' less 

 grace than the American Elm, but more stateliness and gran- 

 deur.' ' It is distinguished from the American Elm, also, by the 

 rough, broken character of its bark, which is darker, and also by 



