PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Ulmus. 
355 
unequal at the base. Flowers on short stalks, four or five-cleft, with four 
or five stamens; fruit roundish, naked, cloven; branches spreading; 
their bark corky. E. Bot. 
(E. Bot. 2161. E.)— Bod. 837— Ger. Em. 1480. 2— Park. 1404. 4. 
Between Christ Church and Lymington. Ray. In Lord Dudley’s woods, 
at Himley, Staffordshire. (Frequent in Sussex. 
Narrow-leaved Elm. Cork-barked Elm. U. suberosa of Ehrh. Willd. 
and E Bot. U. campestris /3. FI. Brit. E.) 
Var. 3. Leaves smooth. Ger. Em. Ray. &c. 
Stamens from four to six. ( Flower-scales with a gold-coloured fringe. 
Calyx thin, sprinkled with glands, much wrinkled, closely investing the 
blossom, semi-transparent, tender, green ; the segments purplish red. 
Blossom like the calyx, but not wrinkled; its segments so glued to those 
of the calyx as to be hardly separable therefrom. With. 
(E. Bot. 2248. E.)— Ger. 1297. 2— Ger. Em. 1481. k—Park. 1404. 3. 
(A tall, elegant tree, with branches spreading to a vast extent, often curved 
and drooping. Bark deeply and widely sinuous. E.) 
Northern or Smooth-leaved Wych Elm. U.glabra. E. Bot. U. mon- 
tana. /3. FI. Brit. Road beyond Dartford, and near Rumford. Ray. 
We see them sometimes in fine harmony together, about the end of April and the beginning 
of May. In autumn also the yellow leaf of the Elm mixes as kindly with the orange of the 
Beech, the ochre of the Oak, and many of the other fading hues of the wood.” The 
same ingenious writer further shows how consequential a part the spray is, in fixing 
the character of the tree : “There is as much difference in the spray, as there is in the 
foliage, or in any other particular. The branch of the Elm hath neither the strength nor 
the various abrupt twistings of the Oak; nor doth it shoot so much in horizontal direc¬ 
tions. Such also is the spray. It has a more regular appearance, not starting off at 
right angles, but forming its shoots more acutely^ with the parent branch. Neither doth 
the spray of the Elm shoot, like that of the Ash, in regular pairs, from the same knot; but 
in a kind of alternacy. It has generally, at first, a flat appearance : but as one year’s shoot 
is added to another, it has not strength to support itself; and as the tree grows old, it often 
becomes pendent also, like the Ash ; whereas the toughness and strength of the Oak 
enables it to stretch out its branches horizontally to the very last twig.” In Lombardy and 
other parts of Italy, Elm trees, (exclusive of those living props appropriated to the “ arhus - 
tivce vites ” of the vineyard), are very frequently entwined with Vines ; a mode of culture 
which Milton presumes might have engaged the attention even of our first parents in Pa¬ 
radise : 
-“They led the vine 
To wed her Elm ; she, spoused, about him twines 
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings 
Her dower, the adopted clusters, to adorn 
His barren leaves.” 
And though in our northern clime it were unreasonable to expect much produce of fruit, 
-“the clusters clear 
Half through the foliage seen 
we would recommend the practice in particular situations, as highly ornamental. During a 
scarcity of grass, by judicious daily prunings of Elm, sheep may be entirely subsisted. 
This species of rural economy might perhaps have been encouraged by the invaders from 
an arid clime, never blessed with the perennial verdure of the green Isles of the Ocean. 
The Mantuan bard descants on the “ foodful leaves” as so employed in his day ; 
— “ fecundae frondibus Ulmi .” Georg, ii. E.) 
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