CORK-BARKED ELM. 



119 



limbs, which generally obliterate the central trunk ; and 

 the size of the tree, though large, rarely equals that of 

 the English Elm. The timber, also, is always spongy, 

 soft, and very inferior to the hard, compact, and durable 

 wood of the U. campestris. It differs also in another 

 point, and one of great importance to the planter, which 

 is, that from some constitutional change it will thrive upon 

 cold clayey inferior soils, where the U. campestris and U. 

 montana could scarcely live. 



The free production of suck- 

 ers, and the corky bark of the 

 U. suierosa, are sufficiently cha- 

 racteristic to prevent its being 

 confounded with the U. mon- 

 tana, to which species, when 

 arrived at maturity, it fre- 

 quently bears a strong general 

 resemblance in form and ra- 

 mification. Its distribution, 

 owing in all probability to its 

 hardier constitution, and capa- 

 bility of adapting itself to soils of various qualities, is much 

 more general than that of U. campestris. In the south 

 of England it is found mixed with that tree upon the 

 clay as well as the gravel, and grows well upon the 

 Kentish chalks ; in the midland counties it is equally com- 

 mon ; again in the plain of York, it occurs in all kinds 

 of soils, and further north and in Scotland, where it pro- 

 bably was first introduced for the U. campestris, it has 

 become naturalized by means of its vigorous suckers. It 

 also prevails along the coast of North Wales, and in the 

 Isle of Anglesea, where it grows indifferently upon both 

 limestone and slate. In Ireland it is met with on the 



