2l8 
TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [chap. 
troop of at least eighty men. Another, but much smaller, 
in the department of the Cher, France, measured over 
30 feet in circumference ; this has been known for five or 
six centuries as the great Chestnut tree, and must be of 
very great age. 
THE ENGLISH ELM TREE (UlllMS campcstris) 
is found growing in the hedgerows of most of the 
counties, and forming the avenues in many of the parks 
of England. It also occupies a wide range over Europe, 
preferring generally low lying, level ground, with a 
moderate degree of moisture. It thrives well in every 
variety of soil, provided the situation be open, but attains 
the greatest perfection when grown in a rich loam, 
reaching, under favourable circumstances, the height of 
60 to 70 feet, with a circumference of from 7 to 8 feet. 
The wood is brown in colour, of moderate weight, 
hard, tough, porous, and much twisted in grain, which 
makes it difficult to work when thoroughly seasoned, 
and also next to impossible to split it. The medullary 
rays, if present in this species of wood, are not distin¬ 
guishable and this in some measure accounts for its 
strong cohesive properties. 
The economical uses of the Elm are very great, since 
we find it extensively employed in engineering works for 
piles, pipes, pumps, blocks, &c.; it is also used for keels 
and planks underwater in ships. Carpenters, wheel¬ 
wrights, turners, and cabinet-makers also use it for so 
many purposes, that it would be veiy difficult to enumeiate 
them. 
Elm timber, if used either where it is constantly under 
water, or in any situation where it is kept peifectly diy, 
excels almost every other kind of wood in durability. 
But under any other circumstances it decays rather 
