108 



THE ELM. 



was not considered to be so well adapted to the 

 purpose as the cultivated kinds. The leaves and 

 bark were supposed to have an astringent pro- 

 perty, and were therefore used in the curing of 

 wounds ; the timber was recommended, for its 

 rigidity and toughness, as lit for the hinges, or 

 rather pivots, of gates ; and Virgil tells us, that 

 young Elms were bent down while in a growing 

 state, and kept in a curved position until they 

 had acquired the necessary shape, in order to 

 be converted into plough-tails, a process which 

 has been imitated in modern times with respect 

 to Oak trees, for the production of w^hat is called 

 knee-timber in ship-building. The wedding of 

 the Vine to the Elm is frequently mentioned by 

 the Roman poets among the tranquil and health- 

 ful occupations of rural life. Some authors are 

 of opinion that the Elm was introduced into 

 Britain by the Romans along with the Vine, and 

 this opinion borrows weight from the .fact, that it 

 rarely matures its seeds, and therefore would re- 

 quire the assistance of man to secure its continued 

 propagation. Since, too, the Elm was one of the 

 trees frequently planted on funeral mounds, it 

 may have been introduced for that purpose, while 

 the similarity of the English name. Elm, to the 

 Latin Ulmus, seems to confirm the opinion of the 

 foreign origin of the tree. 



Evelyn sagely remarks : It seems to be so 

 much more addicted to some places than to others, j 

 that I have frequently doubted whether it be a j 

 pure indigene or translatitious (introduced) ; and 

 not only because I have hardly ever known any 

 considerable woods of them, but almost continually 

 in tufts, hedge-rows and mounds ; and that Shrop- i 



