THE NATIVE TREES OF RHODE ISLAND. 
23 
The Elm. 
The early settlers of the northern American colonies were 
pleased to find growing- naturally here a kind of elm tree even 
superior in majestic beauty to the English elm which shaded their 
ancestral homes. While it was their great task to level the forests, 
and get rid of trees for lands to till, yet, in their ample door- 
yards, many settlers set the American elm, and saved others to 
grow where they stood. These trees to-day form a grand charac- 
teristic of many a homestead scattered among towns and villages 
of New England. They are associated with the well-sweep and 
the “old oaken bucket,” and are linked with some of the most 
precious memories of men and women, who live much in what 
they recall of days of long ago. There is something in these trees 
besides the wood, although many a boy, as he looked up among 
their huge branches, going up and out with such magnificent 
sweep, has wondered where they got so many cords of it. Call 
the feelings cherished for such trees sentiment, or what you will, it 
is what moved Abraham Lincoln to stop his carriage, on returning 
from the army encampment to Washington, to take off his hat as 
he viewed a great tree near the road, and to exclaim : “ Such a 
tree is one of the noblest objects of creation !” It is what inspired 
Bryant to write the “ Forest Hymn,” which contains some of the 
loftiest thoughts ever penned by an American. It is what led 
Oliver Wendell Holmes to say that “ the best poems he ever wrote 
were the trees which he had planted.”^ It is what Washington 
Irving has in mind* when he writes, referring to the love of the 
English for forest trees : “ There is something nobly simple and 
pure in such a taste. It argues, I think, a sweet and generous 
nature to have this strong relish and this friendship for the hardy 
and glorious sons of the forest. There is a grandeur of thought 
connected with this part of rural economy.” We, indeed, keep 
good company in loving such trees as the grand old elms of New 
England. 
The three southern of the New England States have as well- 
