182 ULMUS. 



sooner when exposed to weather or the alternation of wet 

 and dry. By Matthew it is considered to be well adapted 

 for the floor timbers and bottom-planking of vessels, though 

 its quick decay above water renders it unfit for other parts 

 in ship-building. It also frequently affords a beautiful 

 material for the cabinet-maker, being subject, from some 

 stoppage or peculiar diversion of the sap, either by the 

 lopping of large branches or constitutional defect, to throw 

 out large twiggy excrescences, which annually increase and 

 deposit a curiously veined and marbled wood ; these, when 

 cut off and carefully seasoned, furnish a beautiful veneer 

 for tables, work-boxes, &c. The woody fibre of such 

 Elms, also, as have grown in a twisted form, presents a 

 fine laced appearance or waved unevenness, and affords 

 a rich plank for cabinet work. 



The Wych Elm is propagated by seeds, which ripen 

 every year, about the middle of June, in great profusion. 

 They ought to be gathered by the hand from the tree, 

 as, if allowed to fall, they are, from their lightness, soon 

 dispersed and blown away. If sown immediately, a great 

 portion of the seeds vegetate the same season, and the 

 plants are fit to run into nursery rows the following spring, 

 from whence they may be permanently transplanted after 

 the year's growth. Though the Wych Elm does not pro- 

 duce suckers, it strikes from layers with great facility, and 

 if a branch or twig by any accident touches the ground, 

 it is sure to take root ; from this facility of striking root, 

 a close thicket of undergrowth may (as we have proved) 

 very speedily and with very little trouble be produced, but 

 unfortunately the shoots are unfit for many of those uses 

 which render other underwood growths of considerable 

 value. 



It has been the custom in the north of England to graft 



