222 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



stables, and even dwelling-houses for the far- 

 mers ; but many of these were exchanged for 

 buildings of brick and stone, during the long 

 war, which dazzled all eyes with a deceptive 

 prosperity, whilst it ate away the substance of 

 the country like a polypus in the flesh. 



Medical writers have not been sparing of 

 their commendations of the virtues of the 

 elm, every part of which, from the root to the 

 leaf, was esteemed a sovereign remedy for 

 some complaint ; but our space will not allow 

 us to publish all the secrets of Theophrastus, 

 Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, Matthiolus, Bau- 

 hine, Ray, and a long list of other writers, 

 who have recorded the cures performed by 

 means of the elm. We fear that a greater 

 number of their patients were boxed up in 

 the planks of this tree, than were cured by 

 its bark. 



The elm leaves are often found with blis- 

 ters on them, occasioned by the pricking of 

 insects, and include a viscous juice, called elm 

 water, which we should not have mentioned 

 as being good for recent wounds and bruises, 

 but we find the fair sex of former days used it 

 to wound mankind, as an old writer assures us 

 that it was with this wash that they " bright- 

 ened the skin of their faces, and made their 

 countenances so amiable." 



All the varieties of the elm may be raised 



