THE TREES OF AMERICA. 31 



PLATE IV. 



THE .AVERY' ELM, STRATHAM, N. H. 



This tree is on the border of the town of Stratham, near the line which 

 divides it from Greenland, about seven miles from the ocean, and eight from 

 the city of Portsmouth. It is probably' the largest tree of its age in the world. 

 It is known to be but about one hundred years old. It was carefully measured 

 by the author, assisted by the then town clerk of* Stratham, James H. Dimon, 

 Esq., in the fall of 1854. The dimensions are as follows: Smallest circum- 

 ference of the trunk," twerity-ifour" feet ; circumference of- the trunk at one foot 

 from the ground, twenty-eight feet ; circuniifefence of the br&nches, two of eleven 

 and a half feet each, one of ten feet, twenty-two of three feet each, and one 

 hundred from one' foot and a half to two feet or more. The span of the 

 branches is one hundred' and ten feet; the height about ninety feet. It 

 has been estimated by judges to' contain thirty-two cords of wood. 



The author well remembers the white-haired' old man, who, in his youth 

 planted the baby tree by the side of his dwelling, that it might grow with his 

 babes and shelter him and them' in after years. He remembers him as he sat 

 beneath the shade of the majestic tree,^ which seemed only in its vigorous 

 manhood, while he who had planted it when it was but a little younger than 

 himself was now silvered with the frosts of fourscore years. With what interest 

 I then listened to his words as he told of the troublous times of the war of the 

 revolution, in which he and my own ancestors had borne an active and honorable 

 part ! Side by side had they stood, devoting property and life to their country ; 

 and now, beneath the shadow of their own trees could they sit down and tell to 

 their children of the third and fourth generation what perils they had passed 



