THE WYCH ELM 85 



wliilst the excrescences on the stems are valuable for 

 veneering. Gerard tells us that formerly long-bows 

 were made from the wood of this species, and its 

 tough bark was made into ropes. 



In appearance the timbers of the two species of 

 Elm are very difi&cult to distinguish, as may be 

 gathered from our two photomicrographs, although 

 one is taken from a large and the other from a small 

 stem. The latter — the Wych Elm — shows the rela- 

 tively large polygonal pith, the former best exhibits the 

 rows of large pores forming the broad band of spring 

 wood and the characteristic wavy peripheral lines of 

 numerous small ones crowded together. These and 

 the less prominent pith-rays distinguish Elm wood 

 from Oak, which it resembles in colour. Some of our 

 old English linen-chests are of Elm. 



Among the chief varieties belonging to this group 

 of the Elms — most of which are remarkably distinct 

 in appearance — are the Downton, Exeter, Chichester, 

 Canterbury, and Dutch Elms, and a form which may 

 perhaps be fitly known as the Essex Elm. 



The Downton Elm (U. montana pen'dula) is the 

 variety commonly grown in our London squares and 

 gardens, grafted on the ordinary Wych Elm. It was 

 raised from seed from a Nottinghamshire tree at 

 Worcester in 1810, and grown at Downton Castle, in 

 Herefordshire, from which it takes its name. Its 

 leaves are dark in colour, large, and somewhat closely 

 set — so that, when large, the tree has sometimes a 

 rather sombre effect ; but its drooping boughs form 

 many a pleasant arbour, and a row of specimens 

 of this variety overhanging the Kiver Ouse in the 



