DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
129 
eminent dignity and majesty among the trees of the forest. 
Let us now claim for the elm the epithets graceful and 
elegant. This tree is one of the noblest in the size of its 
trunk, while the branches are comparatively tapering and 
slender, forming themselves, in most of the species, into 
long ana graceful curves. The flowers are of a chocolate 
or purple color, and appear in the month of April, before 
the leaves. The latter are light and airy, of a pleasing 
light green in the spring, growing darker, however, as the 
season advances. The elm is one of the most common 
trees in both continents, and has been well known for its 
beauty and usefulness since a remote period. In the 
south of Europe, particularly in Lombardy, elm trees are 
planted in vineyards, and the vines are trained in festoons 
from tree to tree in the most picturesque manner. Tasso 
alludes to this in the following stanza : 
“ Corne olmo, a cui la pampinosa pianta 
Cupida s’avviticchi e si marite ; 
Se ferro il tronca, o fulmine lo schianta 
Trae seco a terra la compagna vite.” 
Gerusalemme Liberata, 2. 326. 
It is one of the most common trees for public walks 
and avenues, along the highways in France and Germany, 
growing with great rapidity, and soon forming a widely 
extended shade. In Europe, the elm is much used for 
keels in ship-building, and is remarkably durable in water ; 
more extensive use is made of it there than of the 
American kinds in this country, though the wood of the 
Red American elm is more valuable than any other in 
the United States for the blocks used in ship rigging. 
For its graceful beauty the elm b entitled to high 
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