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- “ the female ivy so 
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.” 
Witli us it is consecrated to more solemn scenes, being 
generally associated with the yew in adorning our 
churchyards: — 
“ Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade, 
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” 
Whether we borrowed this custom, as some suppose, 
from our heathen conquerors, who, regarding the elm 
and cypress as fruitless and therefore funereal trees, 
planted them by the graves of their deceased heroes, 
it is difficult to determine. It would be more pleasing 
to conjecture, that our Christian ancestors, observing it 
to be one of the first trees that vivified at the touch of 
spring, chose it on that account to betoken the resur¬ 
rection of the dead. 
Trees are full of moral associations ; regarded under 
which impression, they possess even “ something than 
beauty dearer.” Many of them are rich in historic 
interest, and chronicle events of national importance; 
others confine themselves to a more limited range of 
observation, and, recalling the memory of some re- 
