CORK-BARKED ELM. 121 



strong suckers to fill up vacancies as they might occur ; 

 this want is supplied upon inferior soils by the Cork-harked 

 Elm, while in those of a better quality, the gean, or wild 

 cherry, is admirably adapted for the same purpose. In 

 mixed plantations, also, it might be advantageously in- 

 troduced ; thus in a combination of oak and Scotch fir where 

 the latter are intended as first nurses to the oak, the 

 Cork-barked Elm might be planted as secondary or after 

 nurses, for which it is far better calculated than the 

 wide-spreading U. montana, for when young and near 

 to each other the growth of the U. suberosa is upright 

 and aspiring, and bearing as it does the axe to any 

 extent, is calculated to keep up a constant supply of 

 protecting underwood. Again in strips of Scotch fir upon 

 inferior soils, and where they are intended to form both 

 nurses and principals, we could not do better than admit 

 the U. suberosa very freely, especially along the margins 

 of the strips, where they would struggle with the pines, 

 and become a line of hardy, vivacious, reproductive se- 

 condaries to resist the wind, that would otherwise soon 

 find a passage through the naked stems of the firs. It 

 is also the best stock on which to graft the English 

 Elm, where the soil is considered as not sufficiently 

 good to bring that tree to perfection upon its own stock ; 

 the neglect of this precaution in the north of England, 

 where instead of it, that of the U. montana has been 

 made use of, has led to the generally stunted appear- 

 ance which the U. campestris exhibits in all the poorer 

 soils of that district, the nature of the U. montana re- 

 quiring a richer soil to attain its proper dimensions, than 

 the U. campestris itself. But as the U. suberosa shows 

 a great deal of the general beauty of the genus, and its 

 wood, though not of fine quality, is still useful, we would 



