THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



77 



oe called a long-lived tree, as only few 

 individuals survive the vicissitudes of 

 two centuries. Mature trees are sub- 

 ject to a peculiar bleeding of the sap, 

 which oozes out and runs down the 

 trunk in unsightly black streaks. These 

 soon fall a prey to the attacks of 

 numerous fungi, when they rapidly 

 decay, the wood becomes brittle and 

 readily snaps before high winds. In 

 Auckland park, during the recent 

 gales, four trees with an average girth 

 of II feet have been overturned in a 

 cluster, so that they overlap each other 

 as they lie, and in every one the huge 

 branches have snapped like pipe stems 

 with the crash. A curious property of 

 the elm is that the huge branches 

 will often drop off in perfectly calm 

 weather, and from apparently sound 

 trees, without any evident cause; but 

 as they are very subject to the attacks 

 of wood-boring larvse of beetles and 

 mollis, these may have insiduously 

 sapped the stability of the tree in such 

 cases. 



The inner bark of the elm is tonic 

 and astringent, it has a not unpleasant 

 taste, so that the country boys often 

 chew it and call the tree " chewbark." 

 In northern countries, where, no doubt, 

 impending famine has oft reduced the 

 natives to cruel shifts, it has been 

 ground up and used as food. The 

 bark of the slippery elm (U. fulva), a 

 North American species, is in high 

 repute amongst herbal practitioners 



for poultices and fomentations. The 

 foliage is apt to be attacked by a 

 species of Cynips, the punctures of 

 which cause the formation of galls, 

 which contain a limpid fluid. This is 

 evidently what curious old Culpeper 

 refers to : — " The water that is found 

 in the bladders on the leaves, while it 

 is fresh, is very effectual to cleanse the 

 skin and make it fair ; and if cloths 

 be often wet therein and applied to the 

 ruptures of children, it healeth them, 

 if the?/ be well bound up with a truss. 

 The said water put into a glass and 

 set into the ground, or else in dung 

 for twenty-five days, the mouth thereof 

 being close stopped, and the bottom 

 set upon a lay of ordinary salt, that 

 the fceces may settle and the water 

 become clear, is a singular and sover- 

 eign balm for green wounds." He 

 also dilates upon the virtues of the 

 bark and leaves for scurvy, gout, 

 burns, &c. The leaves have been used 

 as a fodder for cattle, who eat them 

 readily, and their bitter, astringent 

 qualities have led to their use in the 

 adulteration of tea. The commanding 

 height and stately growth of the elm 

 has made it the emblem of " dignity," 

 although the slippery character of its 

 bark, and possibly the already-noticed 

 frangibility of its branches, has caused 

 a suspicion of " treachery " to be also 

 associated with it. Thus the Celtic 

 poetess, describing her husband, 

 says ; 



