URTICACEA. 141 
In the early days of Christianity the hunters were accustomed to hang the skins of 
the wolves they had killed in the chase on the elms in the churchyards as a kind of 
trophy. The elm is generally propagated by the numerous suckers which arise from 
around the trunk, and which readily grow and form good trees when separated from 
the parent tree. 
The elm is subject to many diseases, and is liable to be attacked by various insects. 
One, vulgarly called the elm-flea, devours the leaves, but is said not to injure the 
tree. Another is a sort of bectle, which destroys not only the leaves, but the bark of 
the tree, and a third is a species of cossus or goat moth, which is said to have destroyed 
innumerable trees, particularly in the neighbourhood of Paris. It discharges from its 
mouth an oily and acrid liquid, which is supposed to soften the wood before it devours 
it. The liquid has a strong scent, like a goat, whence the English name of the insect 
is derived. 
We have numerous records of old and stately elms, of trees of prodigious size and 
beauty. Evelyn mentions elms standing in his time in good numbers, “that will bear 
almost 3 feet square for more than 40 feet in height. Mine own hands,” he adds, 
“measured a table more than once of about 5 feet in breadth, 94 feet in length, and 
6 inches thick, all entire and clear. This, cut out of a tree felled by my father’s order, 
was made a pastry-board.” Queen Elizabeth is said to have planted an elm at 
Chelsea, which was cut down in 1745, and sold for a guinea by the Lord of the Manor, 
Sir Hans Sloane, on account of its inconvenience to the public road, near which it 
stood. A large hollow elm tree is said to have existed at Hampstead in 1653, which 
was upwards of 42 feet high. It was hollow from the ground to the summit, and had 
stairs inside, which led to a turret at the top, containing seats on which six persons 
might sit. There are accounts existing of many other celebrated elms. The row of 
trees in St. James’s Park next the Palace are many of them 160 years old. Many of 
them have been blown down since. Mr. Loudon writes :—‘ Mr. Jesse mentions an 
elm tree in Hampton Court Park called King Charles’s swing, which, he says, ‘is 
curious from its size and shape. At 8 feet from the ground it measures 38 feet in 
circumference.’” 
One of the elms standing at the entrance of the passage leading to Spring Gardens 
was planted by the Duke of Gloucester, brother to Charles I. Mr. Loudon, whose 
information on forest trees is most complete and exhaustive, gives us particulars and 
details of many other very remarkable trees still existing, or very recently destroyed. 
SPECIES U—-ULMUS MONTANA. Sm. Auct. 
Prare MCCLXXXVIL. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1764. 
U. campestris, Linn. Herb. (!) Sp. Pl. p. 327 (part). 
U. montana and U. stricta, Lind. Syn. Brit. Fl. p. 227. 
U. campestris, var. a, nuda, Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv. ed. ii. p. 734 (part). 
Leaves acuminate, doubly serrate. Flowers shortly stalked. Perianth 
funnelshaped; segments 4 to 6, ciliated. Fruit oval or elliptical, 
notched at the apex, with the seed placed about the middle, and 
remote from the apex of the wing. 
