THE HORNBEAM 23 



puUeies for mills, and such like deuises, than Elme or Wioh 

 Hazell ; for in time it waxeth so hard, that the toughnesse and 

 hardnesse of it may be rather -compared vnto horn than vnto 

 wood, and therefore it was called Hornebeame, or Hardbeame ; 

 the leaues hereof are like the Elme, sauing that they be 

 tenderer ; among those hang certain triangled things, vpon which 

 be found knaps, or little heads of the bignesse of Ciches. in 

 which is contained the fruit or seed ; the root is strong and 

 thicke. . . . The Hornebeam tree is called in Greek fu^fo, 

 which is as if you should say Coniualis, or belonging to the yoke, be- 

 cause it serueth well to make ^vyia of, in Latine, Jxiga, yokes where- 

 with oxen are yoked together, which are also euen at this time made 

 thereof . . . and therefore it may be Englished Yoke Elme." . . 



From this passage, Yoke-elm would seem to be 

 one of Gerard's many coinages; but the scientific 

 name Gaiyinus has also been derived from the 

 Celtic "car," wood, and "pen" or "pin," a head, 

 though another suggestion is the Latin " carpen- 

 tum," a chariot, the Swedish " karm," which 

 closely approaches " charme," the French name for 

 the tree. The wood, which is normally white, 

 hard, tough, rather cross-grained, strong, light, and 

 flexible, is also used for other agricultural im- 

 plements, for the screws of presses, cog- 

 wheels, and tool-handles, and furnishes an excel- 

 lent gunpowder charcoal. The modem German 

 name for the tree, "Hainbuche," refers to another 

 use to which Hornbeam ■ has long been put. As 

 it will stand a great amount of pruning, so long 

 as this is not done in spring, when the tree is 

 likely to suffer from the bleeding that results from 

 the rising . sap, it is a favourite tree for hedgerows, 

 known in French as " charmilles " ; and since the 

 dead leaves remain late on the branches, rustling 

 crisply in the autumn gales, but resisting all the 



