1908 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Extraordinary at that Court writ to me) it does not appear that there were any of 

 those trees in all Spain. In that Princely Seat it is, that double rows of them are 

 planted in many places for a league together in length, and some of them forty yards 

 high." Philip II. created Aranjuez a royal residence in 1575, and probably planted 

 the elms about this date. 



I visited the Royal Park at Aranjuez in 191 1, and found many fine avenues of 

 elms, the largest trees measuring 100 to 120 ft. in height, and 12 to 16 ft. in girth. 

 These differed in no respects from the English elms in Windsor Park or other 

 places in England ; and their deeply-furrowed dark-coloured bark has caused this 

 species to be known in Spain as olmo negro. None of the trees which I saw looked 

 old enough to date back to the reign of Philip 1 1. ; but I was informed that a very 

 old tree which died and was removed in 1910, had a trunk 30 ft. in girth. This 

 was probably one of the three ancient elms^ noticed here by Lady Holland 

 in 1803. 



At Aranjuez, situated at a low altitude in a warm climate, on the banks of the 

 Tagus, the English elm produces every year fertile seed in great abundance ; and 

 numerous seedlings were observed by me in a nursery in the park. At Madrid, on 

 a plateau, 500 feet higher, with a cold temperature in spring, there are extensive 

 groves of these elms in the Retiro Park ; but the samarae were empty and contained 

 no seed, as is almost invariably the case in England ; and M. Hickel noticed the 

 poor seed on the elms of the same species at Toledo. Farther south in Spain, the 

 English elm probably produces as good seed as at Aranjuez ; and the prevalence 

 of this tree in Spain must be due to the ease with which seedlings can be 

 raised. 



A large quantity of seed from the English elms in the Royal Park at Aranjuez 

 was sent to me in May 191 1, and sown immediately at Cambridge. In spite of the 

 great drought, I raised numerous seedlings, which are very uniform in character, all 

 having opposite leaves, indicating a pure species. 



It is possible that the tradition of the introduction of the English elm into 

 Spain from England is incorrect ; and that this tree may be a true native of Spain, 

 indigenous in the alluvial plains of the great rivers, now almost completely 

 deforested. As explained under U. nitens, var. italica, the elm, which occurs wild 

 in the mountains of Spain has different foliage, and it is readily distinguished by its 

 light grey-coloured bark. /A. H.) 



Cultivation 



The English elm is, so far as we are able to judge after careful study of the genus 

 at home and abroad, a variety peculiar to the southern parts of England,^ where it 



1 Cf. Earl of Ilchester, Spanish Journal of Elizabeth, Lady Holland, 73 (1910), where mention is made of three vener- 

 able trees ("either elms or oaks") in front of a small hunting villa built by Charles V. in the garden at Aranjuez. These, 

 according to oral traditions, were said to have been planted by the Emperor Francis I. during his captivity, and by Philip II! 

 Two were flourishing, but one was in a piteous state in 1803. 



2 We have never seen any specimens from the Continent which are identical with this species, except those planted in 

 Spain which are mentioned above. 



