Ulmus 1875 



Grays, Essex, in the form of badly preserved leaves ; and in preglacial beds at 

 Happisburg, Norfolk, leaves better preserved, but which cannot be matched with any 

 British elm, being too small for U. montana, and having more nerves than the Cornish 

 elm, which it otherwise resembles. He also records elm leaves in a neolithic 

 deposit at Blashenwell, Dorset, and in calcareous tuff of doubtful age at Dursley, 

 Gloucester, and elm wood in Digby Fen, where it was found by Skertchly at a depth 

 of ten feet. The geological evidence ^ throws no light on the present distribution of 

 the elms in Britain. (A. H.) 



Sir Herbert Maxwell gives ^ the following account of names of places, derived 

 from U. montana in Britain and Ireland : — 



" The old Gaelic name for it was learn (lam), plural, leaman. Ptolemy's 

 Leamanonius Lacus is now Loch Lomond, the lake of the elms, out of which flows the 

 Leven, which is the aspirated form leamhan (lavan) ; and it is interesting to find these 

 two forms again side by side in Fife, where are the Lomond Hills overlooking the 

 town of Leven. The two forms come together again in Warwickshire, where, not far 

 from Leamington is Levenhull — leamhan choill, elm-wood, and, in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, a place called Elmdon. The Lennox, a district formerly written Levenax, 

 is the adjectival form leamhnach (lavnah), an elm-wood ; and in England the river 

 Leam, giving its name to Leamington, the Leven in Cumberland, the Lune in Lanca- 

 shire (Alauna of Ptolemy), and in Ireland the Laune at Killarney, must all once have 

 been named amhuinn leamhan, elm- river. Leam,h chuill (lav whill), elm-wood, 

 appears as Barluel in Galloway, the hill-top of the elm-wood ; the derivative 

 leamhraidhean (lavran or lowran), elm-wood, becomes Lowran and Lowring, also 

 in Galloway ; and in the same province I have picked up an alternative form to 

 leamhan, common in Ireland — namely, sleamh (slav) and sleamhan (slavvan), whence 

 the names Craigslave and Craigslouan. Yet another derivative, leamhreach (lavrah), 

 seems to be the origin of Caerlaverock, cathair (caher) leamhreaich, fortress in the 

 elm- wood." 



Remarkable Trees 



The finest wych elm that I have seen is one at Studley Royal, Yorkshire (Plate 

 394), which is not mentioned by Loudon, though many trees in the same park were 

 figured in his work. When I measured it in February 1905 it was 105 ft. high by 

 23 ft. in girth, at 5 feet up, but the roots spread so much below this, that at 

 the ground it measured i"] to 40 ft. This tree is very sound-looking and has lost 

 no branch of any size. 



There is an immense wych elm at Cassiobury Park, the seat of the Earl of 

 Essex, which Henry found in 1904 to be about 100 ft. high by 26 ft. 4 in. in girth 

 with two immense branches coming off near the ground and spreading to a diameter 

 of 153 ft. This type of branching is not uncommon in the wych elm and usually 

 leads to premature decay, as the weight of these great limbs tears out a hole in the 



1 Samuel Hassel, in Loudon, Card. Mag. xiii. 477 (1837), states that remains of " the small-leaved elm" are found deep 

 in the bogs of Somersetshire, and also in the foundations of Roman villas. 



2 Scottish Land-Names, no (1894). 



