INTRODUCTION 



some monster-elm or other, vegetating green 

 but inglorious, in some remote New England 

 village, which only wants a sacred singer 

 to make it celebrated." Trees of this type 

 have contributed to the inspiration of more 

 than one successful career. Some of them, 

 long after the lapse of three-score-years- 

 and-ten, have clustered about themselves 

 the fame of the man or woman who loved 

 them, and have thereby acquired a local 

 distinction of no unworthy proportions. 



But others there are whose place in his- 

 tory will never be known. Events un- 

 recorded took place beneath their boughs; 

 in their rings of yearly growth nature has 

 hidden the knowledge of great climatic 

 changes and the ravages of wind and fire, 

 written in a language with which we are 

 but slightly familiar. The towering elm of 

 Pittsfield, the two beautiful elms of Spring- 

 field and many others, irresistible in their 

 time, have passed away; but their fame 

 is secure, for they have been rendered im- 

 mortal by many authors. The value of 

 each lay not so much in its connection with 



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