The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 



137 



found in a native state here in the woods and forests, but is gener- 

 ally confined to the neighbourhood of man's abode, where it has 

 been planted," the writer of these pages cannot say. He is not, 

 as he has intimated above, a book-learned man, nor a learned man 

 at all ; but taking into consideration the very numerous individual 

 trees that may be found scattered all over the country, particularly 

 in the south-western counties, trees of gigantic growth and bearing 

 every evidence of extreme old age ; and with the fact staring him 

 in the face that whole districts — (take the Trowbridge valley as an 

 instance) — are thickly covered with this tree, and would, as before 

 stated, become a forest in a few years, as dense a forest as any that 

 ever covered any part of these islands, were they to be left to a state 

 of nature, he cannot but think that the elm has as good a claim to 

 be numbered among our indigenous trees as any other, in the absence 

 of anything like evidence to the contrary. Anyhow, wherever its 

 original home may bappen to have been, it has gained an inde- 

 feasible settlement in this country for itself and its numerous family. 



Most people are aware that the elm is frequently attacked, 

 in some hollow place, or on a wound where a branch has been 

 broken off, by a parasitic growth, in the shape of a mushroom-like 

 looking fungus. But it is not so generally known that " one of 

 the most singular of all vegetable growths, the 1 Jew's Ear/ 

 although not altogether peculiar to, appears frequently on the 

 trunk of the elm-tree. It is not confined to the living tree, but 

 will at times appear on elm-stakes and gate-posts. In its early 

 state it does not always take the precise form of an ear ; but when 

 well-grown it presents an exact counterpart of a human ear, the 

 folding, and undulations, and the delicate veining, are exact dupli- 

 cates of the ear of man. The substance is dusky, downy, soft, and 

 flesh-like, and is in every way a precise and startling transcript of 

 the human original. The ' Jew's Ear ' has been well known from 

 very ancient times, and was at one time, and is in some places now 

 supposed to possess magical curative powers. It is still an article 

 of commerce, and sold in some markets, both at home and abroad.'' 



But to come to individual trees. There may be larger, there 

 may be finer and handsomer elms, but so far as the writer's know- 



