432 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



the misletoe tlu-usli. Bird-lime is obtained from 

 the berries and the bark of this plant, as well as 

 from the baik of the common holly, by decoc- 

 tion in water. 



The misletoe was formerly esteemed in medi- 

 cine as a cure for epilepsy and other convulsive 

 diseases ; but it is now entirely disused. 



Thf Elm (ulmus). Natural family ulmacew; 

 pentandria, digynia, of Linna;us. There are se- 



veral species of the elm tree, all, bearing so close 

 a resemblance to each other, as to render any 

 distinctive description difficult. It is doubtful 

 whether the most common kinds, the u. campes- 

 tris, montana, glabra, and fruticosa, be not but 

 varieties of the same tree. Linnajus considered 

 all the European elms as forming but one species. 



The Common Elm (u. campestris), is one of 

 the tallest and finest of European trees. Some 

 of those old elms planted in France by Sully, 

 minister of Henry IV., about the year 1680, yet 

 survive, and reach in height from eighty to 

 ninety feet, with a circumference of twenty-five 

 to thirty feet of spreading branches. 



The bark of the elm is smooth in young trees, 

 and very tough, but afterwards it cracks and be- 

 comes rough. The leaves are oblong, pointed, 

 doubly serrate, rough, and unequal at the base, 

 with a short foot-stalk. The flowers appear in 

 the beginning of March, about three weeks be- 

 fore the leaves. They are small, of a reddish 

 colour, united in clusters, and spring from the 

 shoots of the preceding year. They ai-e succeeded 

 by oval-bordered capsules, containing a single 

 round compressed seed, which ripens in May. 

 The wood has less strength than that of the oak, 

 and less elasticity than the ash; but it is tougher 

 and less liable to split. The quality of the wood 

 depends much on the soil, high ground and a 

 strong soil being necessary for its perfection. Tlie 

 knobs which grow on old trunks are divided into 

 slips by the cabinet makers, and often exhibit 

 beautiful veins. and contortions of the fibres. 



The elm appears to be indigenous to Britain, 

 and several other countries in Europe. Not less 

 than forty places in England derive their names 

 from this tree, evidently from remote antiquity, 



most of them being mentioned in Doomsday 

 book. 



The Wych Elm (u, montana j. The Wych 

 elm, or Wych hazel, so called from its resem- 

 blance to the latter tree, grows wild in some of 

 the northern counties of England. It attains a 

 great size. The bark of the young shoots is 

 smooth, tough, and of a yellowish brown colour, 

 with white shoots. The leaves are oval, si.x 

 inches long, and about four broad. The flowers 

 grow in clusters towards the end of the twigs ; 

 they have long leafy impalements of a green 

 colour, and appear in spring before the leaves. 

 The wood is not reckoned so serviceable as the 

 common elm. Anciently it was made into bows. 



The Smooth Elm (u. glabra), is very common 

 in several parts of Hertfordshire, Essex, and 

 other north-east counties of England, where it 

 grows to a large tree, and is much esteemed. 

 The branches spread out like those of the first 

 sort. The leaves are oval, and sharply serrated 

 on the edges. They are smoother than most 

 of the other sorts, and do not appear tUl the 

 middle or latter end of May. 



The Dutch Elm (u. siiherosa), is character- 

 ized by large thick leaves and a fungous bark. 

 The flowers are also of a light tint, and the seeds 

 large. Its wood is said to be softer than that of 

 the common elm. It was brought from Hol- 

 land during the reign of king William, and was 

 used in the trim dipt hedges of that period, but 

 is not now much cultivated. 



The American Elm (u. Americana). There 

 are two kinds enumerated, the white and the red ; 

 the former having a grayish bark, deeply fiir- 

 rowed; the latter a reddish brown. Both rise to 

 the height of noble trees, and their wood is much 

 employed for various domestic purposes. 



The elm is propagated by layers, seeds, and 

 gi'afting. It thrives best in a good soil, and in 

 single trees, or interspersed in hedge-rows, in- 

 stead of fonning large woods. 



The elm attains a large size, and lives to a great 

 age. Mention is made of one planted by Henry 

 IV. of France, which was standing at the Lux- 

 embourg at the commencement of the French 

 revolution. One at the upper end of Church- 

 lane, Clielsea (said to have been planted by queen 

 Elizabeth), was felled in 1746. It was thirteen 

 feet in circumference at the bottom, and one 

 hundred and ten feet high. Pifiij's elm, near 

 the Boddington oak, in the vale of Gloucester, 

 was, in 1783, about eighty feet high, and the 

 smallest girth of the principal trunk was sixteen 

 feet. From the planting of Sir Francis Bacon's 

 elms, in Gray's Inn walks, in 1600, and their 

 decay about 1720, one would be disposed to as- 

 sign the healthy period of the elm to be about 

 one hundred and twenty years. The health of 

 these must have been, however, affected in some 

 degree by the smoke of London. Tlie superb 



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