Chap. 15.] 
MODE OE PROPA.GATI]S"G THE ELM. 
467 
propagated from seed sown in the month of April. As to the 
tuber, it is the best plan to graft it upon the wild plum, the 
quince, and the calabrix,^^ this last being the name that is 
g^Ven to a wild thorn. Every kind of thorn, too, will receive 
grafts remarkably well from the myxa plum,^^ as well as 
from the sorb. 
(11.) As to recommending transferring the young plants from 
the seed-plot to another spot before finally planting them out, 
I look upon it as advice that would only lead to so much unne- 
cessary trouble, although it is most confidently urged that by 
this process the leaves are sure to be considerably larger than 
they otherwise would. 
CHAP. 15. THE MODE OF PEG PA GATING THE ELM. 
The elm seed is collected about the calends of March, 
before the tree is covered with leaves, but is just beginning to 
have a yellow tint. It is then left to dry two days in the 
shade, after which it is thickly sown in a broken soil, earth 
that has been riddled through a fine sieve being thrown upon 
it, to the same thickness as in the case of the cypress. If 
there should happen to be no rain, it is necessary to water the 
seed. From the nursery the young plants are carried at the 
«nd of a year to the elm-plots, where they are planted at inter- 
vals of a foot each way. It is better to plant elms in autumn 
that are to support the vine, as they are destitute of seed 
and are only propagated from plants. In the vicinity of the 
Cit}^, the young elms are transplanted into the vineyard at 
five years old, or, according to the plan adopted by some, when 
they are twenty feet in height. A furrow is first drawn for 
See B. XV. c. 14. Probably a variety of the jujube ; but if so, it 
could hardly be grafted on trees of so different a nature as those here nien-f 
tioned. 
This tree has not been identified. Dalochamps tliinks that it is a species 
of gooseberry, probably the same as the Eibes grossularia of Linnaeus. It 
has been also suggested that it may be the Spina cervina of the Italians, 
the Rhamnus catharticus of Linnaeus, the purgative buckthorn. 
Fee doubts if the plum can be grafted on the thorn. 
5^ First of March. 
The thickness of the thumb. See the last Chapter. 
He alludes to the xitinian elm, of which, he has already said the same 
in B. xvi. c. 29. 
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