Ulmus 1 9 1 1 



Many persons at the present time are anxious when planting to obtain quick 

 results ; yet the planting of an avenue is an operation which cannot be hurried, or 

 let by contract to persons who have no future interest in it. No doubt the 

 nature of the soil has much influence on the growth and habit of the tree, but even 

 in poor, dry calcareous soils the difference between the old trees grown from suckers 

 in hedges and the trees bought from nurseries is so great that no one can mistake 

 them. 



It also frequently happens that elms are budded on stocks raised from seedlings 

 of foreign origin, and these vary so much in their habit and origin, and are usually 

 so much inferior to the true English elm that the results are what we usually see in 

 modern plantings. There is no better proof of this than the young trees planted 

 to fill the gaps in the Long Walk at Windsor, which are a lamentable illustration 

 of carelessness in the propagation of elms. 



No tree possesses the power of suckering ^ to a greater extent than the English 

 elm, the roots often extending 50 yards or more ; and in order to procure a quantity 

 of young plants, it is only necessary to shut up a small field surrounded by elms of 

 good type, and transplant the most vigorous suckers into a nursery, where they can 

 be pruned and cultivated until 6 to 10 ft. high ; or if desired to have them larger 

 they may be transplanted every two or three years and safely moved when as much 

 as 15 or 20 ft. high. 



Mr. Knight published^ in 1840 a method of propagating elms by using, 

 as cuttings, slender shoots which were pulled out from the trunk near the 

 ground, and then reduced to about an inch in length, with a single leaf at 

 the apex. 



If, however, it is desired to produce new varieties, the raising of elms from seed 

 is a very simple matter, provided that the seeds are sown as soon as they are ripe, 

 when they germinate in a few days, and make strong plants in the first year. The 

 variation of most elms that I have sown, except the wych elm, is very great, and 

 natural cross-fertilisation no doubt accounts for this. 



The leaves do not show their true character at first, and it would be difficult to 

 judge of their fitness for planting until they have attained a considerable size. If 

 good timber trees are wanted, no variety surpasses the true English elm on its own 

 roots in its own district. For the maritime climate of south-western England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland I would recommend the true Cornish elm on its own roots. 

 For Scotland, and the North of England, Boutcher was probably right in preferring 

 trees of a good local variety budded on the stock of seedling wych elms, but never 

 on that of imported seedlings. 



The bark of dead or sickly elms will usually be found to contain the elm-bark 

 beetle [Scolytus destructor) in one stage or another. Whether this insect attacks 

 healthy trees has never yet been satisfactorily determined ; and the remarks on this 

 point of Dr. T. A. Chapman, an entomologist whose actual experience of Scolytidae 



' In Card. Chron. 1872, p. 603, fig. 504, an article by the late W. Ingrain, gardener at Belvoir Castle, has a figure 

 showing the extraordinary root-development of an elm growing on the edge of a quarry. 

 ■^ Loudon, Gard, Mag. xvi. 474 (1840). 



