THE SMALL-LEAVED ELM. 323 
England, the delightful contrast afforded by the 
soft burst of verdancy along the dark lines of the 
spreading Elm boughs? The beautiful propor- 
tions of bough and twig are lost in the glorious 
profusion of summer leafage. But the beauty of 
the wintry form—stem, branch, bough, and twig 
—are seen in lovely spring in gentle association 
with the tenderest hue of expanding foliage. 
The leaf of the Small-leaved Elm, the subject of 
the present chapter, at first, as we have seen, 
of a light and tender hue, becomes as summer 
advances of a dark green colour. It is some- 
what pear-shaped, pointed at its apex, and 
acutely serrated around its margin. Its striking 
peculiarity is the inequality of its base, owing to 
the dividing mid-vein separating its leafy portion 
into two unequal parts, the margin of one part 
being carried lower down the mid-vein than the 
other, which, falling short of the length of the 
complementary portion, leaves the mid-vein bare. 
The surface of the leaf on both sides is usually 
somewhat rough or crumpled: the venation, 
however, on the under-side being very distinct, 
the veinlets diverging on each side of the mid- 
