4 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



4. To a native of New England, therefore, the elm 

 has a value more nearly approaching that of sacredness 

 than any other tree. Setting aside the pleasure derived 

 from it as an object of visual beauty, it is intimately asso- 

 ciated with the familiar scenes of home and the events of 

 his early life. In my own mind it is pleasingly allied with 

 those old dwelling-houses which were built in the early 

 part of the last century, and form one of the marked feat- 

 ures of New England home architecture during that pe- 

 riod. They are known by their broad and amine, but low- 

 studded rooms, their numerous windows with small panes, 

 their single chimney in the center of the roof, that sloped 

 down to the lower story in the back part, and, in their 



"general unpretending appearance, reminding one vividly of 

 that simplicity of life which characterized our people be- 

 fore the revolution. Their very homeliness is delightful, 

 by leaving the imagination free to dwell upon their pleas- 

 ing suggestions. Not many of these charming old houses 

 are now extant ; but whenever we see one, we are almost 

 sure to find it accompanied by its elm, standing upon the 

 green open space that slopes up to it in front, and wav- 

 ing its long branches in melancholy grandeur over the ven- 

 erable habitation which it seems to have taken under its 

 protection, while it droops with sorrow over the infirmi- 

 ties of its old companion of a century. 



5. The elm is remarkable for the variety of forms which 

 it assumes in different situations. Often it has a droop- 

 ing spray only when it has attained a large size ; but it 

 almost invariably becomes subdivided into several equal 

 branches, diverging from a common center, at a consid- 

 erable elevation from the ground. One of these forms is 

 that of a vase, the base being represented by the roots of 

 the tree that project above the soil and join the trunk, 

 the middle by the lower part of the principal branches, as 

 they swell out with a graceful curve, then gradually di- 



