ENGLISH ELMS
Ulmus campestris
Page [108]
The English elm is found planted frequently throughout New England, and there are many fine specimens in Massachusetts, especially in the country about Boston. According to Emerson, they were originally said to be imported and planted by a wheelwright for his own use in making the hubs of wheels, for which purpose the wood of the English elm is superior to any other. At all events, there are many beautiful specimens growing near old colonial houses, and sometimes they are found growing by stone walls at some distance from the house, back of farm buildings and barns, as was the group from which I took the following photograph.
The American elm is more graceful than the English elm, which, on the other hand, is more stately; both trees are unusually beautiful, although representing such different types of beauty. In the “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Dr. Holmes contrasts the English and American elms growing on Boston Common. “Go out with me into that walk which we call the Mall,” he says, “and look at the English and American elms. The American elm is tall, graceful, slender-sprayed, and drooping as if from languor. The English elm is compact, robust, holds its branches up, and carries its leaves for weeks longer than our own native tree. Is this typical of the creative force on the two sides of the ocean or not?”
In England the elm has been planted from the time of the Romans, though Dr. Walker thinks that it was brought over at the time of the Crusades. The elm was planted by the Romans as a prop for grape vines, and in the South of Italy it is still used for that purpose. In “Paradise Lost” Milton refers to this when he describes how Adam and Eve spent their time in the Garden of Eden. Among various other occupations,
“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