140 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
is exposed to the weather. Sir J. E. Smith says that in Norfolk elm wood is generally 
used for the naves of wheels, and in many parts of England, particularly London, it 
is also employed for coffins. The knobs which grow upon old trees are divided into 
thin plates by cabinetmakers, particularly in France and Germany, and when polished 
they exhibit very curious and beautiful arrangements of the fibre, which render this 
wood suitable for ornamental furniture. Elm wood has been used from time im- 
memorial for water-pipes, troughs, &c., and for conveying water to the salt-pans or 
boxes where salt is evaporated. Our Saxon forefathers called all places where there 
were salt springs wich or wych, such as Droitwich, Nantwich, &e. ; hence, probably, 
came the name of Wych Elm, which was originally applied to the common British 
Elm. The leaves and young shoots of the elm were used by the Romans to feed 
cattle, and they are still so employed in many parts of France. They have in some 
places been given to silkworms, and in France and Norway they are boiled to serve 
as food for pigs. In some places the bark is used as an astringent medicine, and 
the inner bark for making bast, masts, and ropes. Young deer are very fond of the 
bark, and in Norway they kiln-dry it, and grind it with corn to make flour for bread. 
Some years ago an immense quantity of dried elm leaves were used for adulterating 
tea, and for manufacturing a substance intended to be used as a substitute for it. 
They are astringent, but contain a considerable quantity of mucilaginous matter. 
The bark of the elm contains a considerable quantity of tannin united with mucilage, 
rendering it medicinal as a tonic and demuleent and of use in tanning. A decoction 
of it has been used as a diuretic in dropsy, and it is said to be a good substitute 
for sarsaparilla. In England the elm is seen to perfection in many gentlemen’s parks, 
and we reeall the beautiful avenue of elms in St. James’s Park, and at Oxford and 
Cambridge. The ancient poets often mention the elm tree, which, in common with 
other trees, or such as did not produce fruit fit for human food, were devoted to the 
infernal gods. They were given up entirely to funereal purposes. Homer alludes 
to this in the “Iliad,” when he tells us that Achilles raised a monument to the father 
of Andromache in the midst of a grove of elms— 
* Jove’s sylvan daughters bade these elms bestow 
A barren shade, and in his honour grow.” 
Ovid mentions that when Orpheus returned to earth after his descent into the infernal 
regions, his lamentations for the loss of Eurydice were so pathetic, that the earth 
opened, and the elm and other trees sprang up to give him shade and comfort. The 
Romans planted the elm as a support to the vine, and it is still used for this purpose 
in the south of Italy. This circumstance gives rise to many allusions to the tree by 
poets, both ancient and modern. Ovid makes Vertumnus allude to it when recom~- 
mending matrimony to Pomona— 
“Tf that fair Elm, he cried, alone should stand, 
No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand, 
Or if that Vine without her Elm should grow, 
"Twould creep a poor neglected shrub below.” 
Milton, in “ Paradise Lost,” describing the occupation of Adam and Eve, says :— 
“She led the Vine 
To wed her Elm; she spoused, about him twines 
Her marriageable arms ; and with her brings 
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves.” 
