vin. 



THE ELMS. 



It is much more difficult than one would at first sup- 

 pose, to obtain accurate knowledge of the age of our 

 older trees. Records are occasionally made of the 

 planting of certain trees, but the age or size of the tree 

 when planted is seldom recorded. Mistakes are often 

 made in referring to the work, and in locating the ti'ee 

 itself in accounts given of it afterwards, and these 

 accounts, too, are generally transmitted verbally from 

 generation to generation. 



With our trees, and in our climate, a nearly accurate 

 record of the age of every tree is sealed up in its trunk 

 where the circles of wood formed each year are clearly 

 defined. When a tree is cut, therefore, if the wood is 

 not decayed we may count the years of the tree's life 

 almost with certainty. In tropical countries, where the 

 diflference between the growing season and that of rest 

 is less marked, this cannot be done ; but here, where the 

 alternation of summer and winter is so regular and the 

 change so complete, these annual rings of growth are 

 easily counted. Infrequently, either by the entire de- 

 struction of all of the leaves of a tree early in the 

 season by insects, or possibly in case the early growth 

 is completely arrested by drought, a second growth 

 may take place the same season. This growth, how- 

 ever, rarely occurs, nor is it so clearly marked in the 



