ELM TREE. 



ULMUS. 



ULMACE^E. PENTANDRIA DIGYNIAc 



French, orme ; Italian , ulmo, olmo. 



The Common Elm, Ulmus campestris, is a native of 

 Europe and Barbary ; it is generally supposed to be indi- 

 genous of England, though Evelyn and some others doubt 

 whether this really be the case ; all agree, however, that if 

 not a native, it has been naturalized here even from the 

 time of the Saxons. Dr. Hunter is convinced that it is 

 a native of this country : " of which,"" he says, " there 

 can be no stronger proof, than that there are nearly forty 

 places in this kingdom which have their names from 

 it; most of which are mentioned in Domesday-book. 

 Chaucer hved at New Elm, in Oxfordshire ; Dryden at 

 Nine Elms, near Lambeth : there is also Barn-Elms, &c." 



The bark of the young trees, or of the younger branches 

 of old trees, is smooth, and very tough, and may be 

 stripped off from the wood to a great length without 

 breaking. As the trees grow old and large, the bark of 

 the body cleaves or rends apart, which makes the surface 

 rough. 



The blossoms, which are of a pale red colour, appear 

 before the leaves, about the end of March, growing in 

 clusters on the twigs : they are succeeded by flat seeds, 

 of which the greater part fall away before, or imme- 

 diately after, the leaves spring forth ; but a few will 

 hang on nearly all the summer. The leaves are dark 

 green, about two inches broad, and three long ; rough on 



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