19 1 o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



straightest timber trees are those naturally produced in hedges from suckers, yet 

 the practice of budding or grafting elms on the stock of the wych elm has become 

 so general, that I do not know a single commercial nursery in England to-day where 

 true layered English elms can be procured ; and though nurserymen assert that the 

 budded trees will produce equally fine specimens, yet one has only to compare the 

 younger trees planted in the last hundred years with the older ones, to see how 

 inferior they generally are. 



This practice, however, was recommended as long ago as Miller's time on the 

 grounds mentioned by Hunter, in Evelyn's Silva 124 (1776), as follows: — "The 

 practice of grafting will be found a valuable improvement of the English elm, if we 

 consider the nature of the wych elm on which it is grafted. First the wych elm 

 will not only grow to the largest size of all the sorts, but will grow the fastest. 

 This is not to be wondered at, if we examine the root, which we shall find more 

 fibrous than in any of the other elms. Now as all roots are of a spongy nature to 

 receive the juices of the earth for the nourishment and growth of the tree, that tree 

 must necessarily grow the fastest, whose root is most spongy and porous ; and there- 

 fore the English elm being set upon the root of the wych will draw from the earth 

 a greater quantity of nutriment. The English elm on this basis, will arrive at timber 

 many years sooner than those raised by layers, and be also forced to a greater size." 



Boutcher says : ^ " The English elm grafted on the Scots makes both a beautiful 

 and valuable tree, yet it is still inferior in regularity of form, and loftiness of stature, 

 to those raised from their own mother, and as every tree must in some measure 

 partake of the stock on which it is grafted, so this has a near resemblance of the 

 Scots elm in its bark even when young, and when old, like them, grows more loose 

 spreading and less erect than the true English, though when young they are 

 extremely beautiful. Here it may be necessary to observe a practice extremely 

 common among ignorant nurserymen, which is cutting their English elm grafts from 

 those on Scotch stocks, and which, indeed, have the fairest and plumpest buds (a plain 

 indication from whence they immediately proceed, the buds of the Scotch being 

 larger and more turgid than those of the English), but these gentlemen do not 

 regard the quality of the plants they sell, so they are paid for them, or are ignorant 

 that by repeating this practice the English elm may be brought so far to degen- 

 erate, as in many graftings this way, to differ very little from the Scots ; therefore, 

 whatever kind the stocks are on which you graft the English, let the grafts be taken 

 from trees of the true kind, raised by layers of their own mother. This, however 

 little attended to, nature plainly dictates." Further, he goes on to say : " It may 

 also be proper to notice here that all elms planted in gardens and by the sides of 

 walks, lawns, or avenues, ought to be on Scots stocks, as these produce no suckers, 

 which the English, French, or Dutch do in such quantities as to make it very 

 troublesome and expensive keeping such places clear of them and in good 

 order." 



The whole of Boutcher's article on the elm is so valuable that it should be 

 studied by anyone wishing to plant elms. 



* Treatise on Forest Trees, 12-13 ('784). 



