URTICACEE. 139 
Var. 8 appears to differ only in the leaves being much smoother 
and destitute of hairs except in the axils of the veins. 
Common Elin. 
French, Orme commun. German, Feldulme, Riister. 
The elm is the first tree that salutes the early green spring with its light and 
cheerful green, a tint which contrasts agreeably with the oak, whose early leaf has 
generally more of the olive cast. We see them sometimes in fine harmony together 
about the end of April or the beginning of May. Its appearance is familiar to every- 
one. It grows frequently to the height of sixty or seventy fect, and occasionally even 
higher, with a trunk measuring often from three to five feet in diameter at the lower 
part. The bark of the trunk is remarkably rugged, and furrowed longitudinally— 
peculiarities that in some varieties extend even to the small branches, which, however, 
in the typical form of the tree, are smooth. The flowers grow in the early spring, 
and are produced in small round branches, chiefly at the summit of the tree; the 
anthers are purplish. The blossoms open long before the leaf-buds begin to expand, 
and being generally produced in great abundance, give at that season an appearance 
of density to the otherwise slender and finely-divided ends of the branches. The 
Howers are succeeded by winged seed-vessels, which rarely ripen in this country. If 
allowed to grow naturally in a good deep soil, no tree is more beautiful than the elin 
when it has attained a large size; but most of our trees in the lanes and hedgerows 
are disfigured and distorted by lopping off the side branches, with a view either to 
lessen the shade they throw over the fields, or to straighten the trunk—an object often 
gained at the expense of the soundness of the timber, for such artificially-trained trees 
often prove hollow and rotten. According to Evelyn, a common elm will produce a 
load of timber in forty years: it does not, however, cease growing in favourable 
situations for 100 or 150 years, and will live for centuries. Gilpin remarks that “no 
tree is better adapted to receive grand masses of light. In this respect it is superior 
to the oak and ash; nor is its foliage shadowing, as it is of the heavy kind. The elm 
naturally grows erect, and when it meets with a soil it loves, rises higher than the 
generality of trees; and after it has assumed the dignity and hoary roughness of age, 
few of its forest brethren excel it in grandeur and beauty.” 
The elm was known to the ancient Greeks, as appears evident from the fact that 
Pliny mentions that the Greeks had two distinct kinds, one inhabiting the mountains, 
and the other the plains. The Romans, Pliny tells us, had four kinds ; the Mountain, or 
late Elm, the Ganlic Elm, and the Wild Elm. As an ornamental tree it was scarcely 
known in France until the time of Francis I., who appears first to have planted it in 
the public walks about 1540. It was afterwards planted largely, particularly in 
churchyards, by Sully, in the time of Henry IV.; and by desire of that king, who, 
according to Evelyn, expressed a wish to have all the highways in France planted 
with it, it soon became the tree most generally used for promenades and hedgerows. 
In England the elm has been planted from time immemorial, probably from the time 
that the island was in possession of the Romans, though some writers say it was 
introduced at the time of the Crusades. The oldest elm trees on record are, we 
believe, those of Mongewell in Oxfordshire, which were celebrated in the time of 
Leland, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Loudon thinks there may be older trees 
than this unnoticed. The timber of the elm is very valuable when sound, as it 
possesses qualities not to be found in other trees, especially that of durability under 
water ; therefore, it is peculiarly adapted for shipbuilding, and all purposes where it 
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