50 
WHITE ELM. 
and the Shag-bark Hickory. West of the mountains it abounds in all the 
fertile bottoms watered by the great rivers that feed the Ohio and the 
Mississippi. I have constantly observed it on their banks with the White 
Maple and the Buttonwood, where its base is inundated at the rising of 
the waters in the spring. On the margins of these rivers it is sometimes 4 
feet in diameter. In the Middle States it stretches to a great height, but 
does not approach the magnificence of vegetation which it displays in the 
countries peculiarly adapted to its growth. In clearing the primitive forests 
a few stocks are sometimes left standing ; insulated in this manner, it appears 
in all its majesty, towering to the height of 80 or 100 feet, with a trunk 4 
or 5 feet in diameter, regularly shaped, naked, and insensibly diminishing 
to the height of 60 or 70 feet, where it divides into two or three primary 
limbs. The limbs, not widely divergent near the base, approach and cross 
each other 8 or 10 feet higher, and diffuse on all sides long, flexible, pen- 
dulous branches, bending into regular arches and floating lightly in the air. 
A singularity is observed in this tree which Ï have witnessed in no other ; 
two small limbs 4 or 5 feet long grow in a reversed position near the first 
ramification, and descend along the trunk. 
The Buttonwood astonishes the eye by the size of its trunk and the am- 
plitude of its head ; but the White Elm has a more majestic appearance, 
which is owing to its great elevation, to the disposition of its principal 
limbs, and the extreme elegance of its summit. In New Hampshire, be- 
tween Portsmouth and Portland, a great number of young White Elms are 
seen detached in the middle of the pastures ; they ramify at the height, of 
8, 10 or 12 feet, and their limbs, springing at the same point, cross each 
other and rise with an uniform inclination, so as to form of the summit a 
sheaf of regular proportions and admirable beauty. 
The trunk of this Elm is covered with a white, tender bark, very deeply 
furrowed. The wood, like that of the Common European Elm, is of a dark 
brown, and, cut transversely or obliquely to the longitudinal fibres, it ex- 
hibits the same numerous and fine undulations ; but it splits more easily, 
and has less compactness, hardness and strength. This opinion was given 
me by several English wheel-wrights established in the United States, and 
I have since proved its" correctness by a comparison of the two species. 
The White Elm is used, however, at New York and further north for the 
naves of coach-wheels, because it is difficult to procure the Black Gum, 
which at Philadelphia is preferred for this purpose. It is not admitted 
into the construction of houses or of vessels, except occasionally, in the 
District of Maine, for keels, for which it is adapted only by its size. Its 
bark is said to be very easily detached during eight months of the year ; 
soaked in water and suppled by pounding, it is used in the Northern States 
for the bottom of common chairs. 
Such are the few and unimportant uses of the White Elm in the United 
