HOME PLANTS AND THEIR WAYS. 5 



verge, until they bend downward ;ind form the lip of the 

 vase by their circle of terminal brandies. Another of its 

 forms is that of a vast dome, as represented by those trees 

 that send up a single shaft to the height of twenty feet or 

 more, and then extend their branches at a wide divergency, 

 and to a great length. The elms which are remarkable for 

 their drooping character are usually of this shape. 



G. At other times the elm assumes the shape of a plume, 

 presenting a singularly fantastical appearance. It rises up- 

 ward, with an undivided shaft, to the height of fifty feet or 

 more, without a limb, and bending over with a gradual 

 curve from about the middle of its height to its summit, 

 which is sometimes divided into two or three terminal 

 branches. The whole is covered, from its roots to its sum- 

 mit, with a fringe of vinedike twigs, extremely slender, 

 twisted, and irregular, and resembling a parasitic growth. 

 Sometimes it is subdivided at the usual height into three or 

 four long branches, which are wreathed in the same man- 

 ner, and form a compound plume. 



7. Unlike other trees that send up a single undivided 

 shaft, the elm, when growing in the forest, as well as in the 

 open plain, becomes subdivided into several slightly diver- 

 gent branches, running up almost perpendicularly until 

 they reach the level of the tree-tops, when they suddenly 

 spread themselves out, and the tree exhibits the parasol 

 shape more nearly even than the palm. When one of these 

 forest elms is left by the woodman, and is seen standing 

 alone in the clearing, it presents to our sight one of the 

 most graceful and beautiful of all arborescent forms. 



A ll antic Monthly, 



