148 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
montanus, L., the wych elm ; the other naturalized, 
U. surculosa, Syme, and this may have been brought 
to us by the Romans. 
Two of Shakespeare’s references are exceedingly 
pretty : 
Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, 
Whose weakness married to thy stronger state 
Makes me with thy strength communicate. 
Comedy of Errors , II. ii. 176. 
And in a similar train of thought we get: 
The female ivy so 
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 
Midsummer-Night's Dream , IV. i. 48. 
The word “ wych ” elm is equivalent to hutch elm, 
because it was used to make coffers to keep pro¬ 
visions in, called hucches, wyches, or whycchs. Thus 
Dr. Prior quotes: 
His hallrofe was full of bacon flytches, 
The chambre charged was with wyches, 
Full of eggs, butter, and cheese. 
The other component word, elm, often pronounced 
“ hell-um ” by the villagers, is a word nearly ^identical 
in all the Germanic and Scandinavian dialects, but is 
really a foreign word, the Latin ulmus , adopted and 
varied by them. The use of it points to a South 
European origin, and would help to bear out the 
suggestion that we may thank Rome for this tree, as 
we have for the vine and chestnut. 
The most delicate and graceful ot our native 
poplars, the aspen, also flowers this month. It 
rears its crown of constantly vibrating leaves some 
40 to 80 feet, and has the usual European distribu¬ 
tion of most of our native trees, reaching into Asia 
and Northern Africa. Its curious trembling form, 
from which its specific name (Populus tremula , L.) is 
