44 THE TREES OF AMERICA. 



interest in their welfare. " It has done much," says a gifted lady, " to benefit 

 the children by teaching them to take an interest in the lower animals, and to 

 treat them with kindness, thus writing the law of kindness upon their own hearts." 



The Great Elm belongs to the species Ulmus Americana — White Elm. This 

 is the species so common in all parts of New England. For grace and beauty, 

 and variety of form, so that each tree might have its own individual name, it 

 excels all other species. The prevailing types, however, are, as noticed by Em- 

 erson, three in number. The first is formed by a number of branches starting 

 from a common centre, twenty or thirty feet from the ground, diverging very 

 gradually as they ascend until they reach the height of sixty or seventy feet ; 

 then curving rapidly outward, forming a flat or rounded, top, with a border 

 formed of the ends of the branches pointing downwards, or in some cases bend- 

 ing inwards towards the centre. Sometimes the branches which compose the 

 body of the vase, as well as the trunk, are clothed with foliage springing from 

 innumerable small sprays. This gives the tree the appearance of having a wild 

 vine clinging to it, and in these cases nothing can exceed its beauty. The irreg- 

 ular arrangement of bunches of these small twigs is common to many individuals 

 of this species of elm ; and although in all cases they add very much to the 

 variety and beauty of the tree, they are usually cut off by the professed " tree 

 surgeons," and also by a great many others who must, like Mr. Samuel Weller's 

 " Deputy Sawbones," practise upon something. The author once knew a " Dep- 

 uty Sawbones " of this description who had, in addition to the tree-improving 

 mania, an irresistible desire to exercise his art upon cats and dogs, asserting that 

 it was necessary to the appearance of these animals that they should have their 

 ears and tails cut off, " especially their tails." He contended that nature had 

 given them these appendages, as it had the superfluous branches to trees, in 

 order to exercise and improve our taste in trimming them. There is a beautiful 

 avenue of elms near the residence of the author which has lately undergone this 

 improving process. The desire seems to be to destroy their graceful, pendulous 

 character, and to make them as stiff and ugly as possible. 



Another common form of the elm is the plumose. In these cases the tree 

 rises in a single trunk to a great height before giving off its branches, as in the 



