BROAD-LEAVED ELM. 7 



a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest ; 

 and will produce little without the assistance of 

 lime and turnips. 



II. 



IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor 

 farm to the north-west of the village, on the white 

 malms, stood within these twenty years a broad- 

 leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo 

 scabro 1 of Ray, which, though it had lost a con- 

 siderable leading bough in the great storm in the 

 year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when 

 felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and being 

 too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet 

 above the butt, where it measured near eight feet 

 in the diameter 2 . This elm I mention, to show to 



decay commences sooner, according to the depth of the 

 upper soil, in the centre of the trunk at the root, in the wood 

 being of a darker colour, extending by degrees in circumfer- 

 ence and up the stem, until the lower part of it becomes en- 

 tirely deprived of vegetation, and assumes a tough and corky 

 appearance. This extends to the whole plant, which gra- 

 dually decays and dies. On the same soil the oak grows 

 and thrives well. 



The "freestone" to which Mr. White refers is the white 

 or grey, and may have a different effect on these trees. 

 W. J. 



1 The ulmus montana, Sir J. E. Smith, and the most 

 common in Scotland. There are four additional species ad- 

 mitted into the Flora of Great Britain, which are now to 

 be generally met with in plantations that have been made 

 within the last ten or twelve years. W. J. 



2 The dimensions here alluded to are insignificant when 

 compared with those of a witch elm recorded by Mr. Evelyn, 

 growing in Sir Walter Baggot's park, in the county of 

 Stafford, which, after two men had been five days felling, 

 lay 40 yards in length, and was at the stool 17 feet diameter. 

 It broke in the fall, 14 loads of wood ; 48 in the top : yield- 

 ing 8 pair of naves, 8660 feet of boards and planks ; it cost 



