THE AMERICAN ELM. 



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Wahoo or Winged Elm ; U. Ju/va, the Slippery or Red Elm ; and U. crassi- 

 folia, the Cedar Elm. Of these, the White Elm is the most distributed and most 

 largely cultivated. Dr. Charles Sprague Sargent, the eminent American bota- 

 nist, thus refers to the White Elm in his "Silva of North America": — "The 

 White Elm is one of the largest and most graceful trees of the Eastern States 

 and Canada. It is beautiful at all seasons of the year; when its minute flowers, 

 harbingers of earliest spring, cover its branches ; when, in summer, it rises like 

 a great fountain of dark and brilliant green above its humbler companions of the 

 forest, or sweeps with long and graceful boughs the placid waters of some stream 

 flowing through verdant meadows ; when autumn delicately tints its leaves, and 

 when winter brings out every detail of the great arching limbs and slender, 

 pendulous branches standing out in clear relief against the sky." 



The range of U. a?nericana, or White Elm, extends from Newfoundland to 

 Western Texas. It is the largest of its family, sometimes attaining a height of 

 over 1 20 feet, though out of its native home it does not grow 

 to such a great size, and in England it rarely flowers and never 

 ripens its seeds. The Rock Elm (U. racemosd), which sometimes attains a 

 height of 100 feet, is an extremely striking tree on account of its often being 

 free of branches for two-thirds of its height, and its fine, straight shaft, with its 

 small head, reaching its finest proportions in Ontario and Michigan ; but, owing 

 to the value of its firm, close-grained wood, which takes on a high polish, it is 

 becoming scarce. The Wahoo (U. alatd) grows from 40 to 50 feet high, and 

 is not found north of Virginia. It is easily recognised by the 



The Wahoo. r . . . j o j 



fungous, cork-like substance which lines the branches on both 

 sides. The Slippery Elm (U. fulvd), which is found on the banks of streams, 

 grows from 60 to 70 feet high. It is a common tree with large rough leaves and 

 straggling branches, something in appearance between the White Elm and the 

 Ironwood ; its inner bark is much used for medical purposes. The Cedar Elm 

 ( U. crassifoliri) — a graceful tree growing to a height of 80 feet — grows in Missis- 

 sippi, South Arkansas, and Texas, though it is rarely seen under cultivation. 



The White Elm, however, is the most beautiful of all, and it is seen at its 

 best in the New England States, although many noble specimens grow in the 



State of New York and elsewhere. Emerson, Holmes, and many 

 white* Eim writers have sung its praises, while nearly a hundred villages in 



this country are named after it. To Thoreau, in a moonlight 

 night, a colony of Elms along a river looked like the columns of a portico 

 wreathed with evergreens on the evening of a festival ; while an Elm in the 

 distance was like the vignette to an idyllic poem, suggestive of the quiet, rural 

 life beneath it. In the autumn, dropping gold over the highway, they reminded 

 him, both by their form and colour, of yellowing sheaves of grain, as if the 

 harvest had indeed come to the village itself. 



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