NURSERY AND PLANTING. 



81 



are of all soils the least congenial to it, but even in the crevices 

 between rocks, where there is little soil of any kind, and on 

 bleak exposed hills, this elm will attain a considerable size. 



The different species of elm which perfect seeds, should be 

 always originated from them : this is, however, not generally, 

 by any means, the case ; and hence follow, as a natural cause, 

 the many distorted and worthless trees, which we daily see in 

 plantations and forests, where more expeditious means have 

 been used to produce plants of fit size for sale or planting. 

 Our opinion is (although differing from men whom we esteem, 

 and from whose writings we have derived much pleasure and 

 advantage) that no tree should be propagated by other means 

 than by seeds, unless extraordinary circumstances warrant a 

 departure from that natural rule ; and in collecting the seeds 

 of all trees, greater care should be taken to select the seeds 

 from the healthiest and most vigorous specimens, and not in- 

 discriminately, nor by people unacquainted with the distinctions 

 between a good and a worthless tree. 



The seeds of the Scotch elms ripen abundantly about the 

 middle of June, and should then be collected, and sown im- 

 mediately after. Upon this subject Sang offers the following 

 rational remarks : — " Elm-seed, when newly gathered, espe- 

 cially at this season, and kept together in a large quantity, 

 has, on account of the juicy nature of its capsule, a great 

 tendency to heat. It will, therefore, be proper to gather no 

 more on one day than can be sown on the following morning ; 

 and it will even be right to spread the seeds thin during the 

 night. The necessity of this precaution generally shows itself, 

 for before they can be brought home in the evening of the day 

 on which they are gathered, if there be a bushel or two in the 

 sack, they will be found very hot. We have often observed 

 them so much so, that if they had lain in that state till the 

 morning, many of them would never have vegetated." Some- 

 times, however, elm-seeds are gathered with a view to keeping 

 them for some time, as is the case when it is not convenient 

 or possible to sow them till autumn or even spring ; and it also 

 happens when the intention is to send them to a distance. In 

 these cases, some attention is requisite, both as to the gather- 

 ing of the seed, and also to curing it, so that it may be kept 



