Trees, Shown to the Children

by C. E. Smith

Cattle love the Elm tree leaves when they are green and young, and in some places they are stripped from the trees in sackfuls to feed the cows.

Many insects make their home on the Elm tree. The caterpillar of the large tortoise-shell butterfly feeds on the leaves, and there is an insect beetle that burrows little tunnels in the wood and loosens the bark from the tree. If you pick up some pieces of Elm tree wood where a woodman has been sawing, you will see curious markings like the veins of a skeleton leaf, tunnelled in the wood. These are made by a tiny beetle, and are very injurious to the tree.

But the beetle has an enemy that comes to the tree’s rescue. Sometimes on a still day if you are sitting quietly in the woods, you will hear a gentle tap-tapping close beside you. This is the woodpecker, a bird which is perched on the rough bark of the Elm tree, and with his bill he pecks at the tree in search of insects which form his favourite meal.

Birds love the Elm trees, as their shade is not too dense to shut out the sunshine, and you will often find rooks’ nests in the upper branches, tossed and swayed by the gales.

The Elm tree is useful for many purposes. Farmers plant it in their hedgerows, as grass will grow freely above its roots.

In Italy the Elms are trained to carry the Vines. The young trees have all their lower branches cut off, leaving the bare stem like a living pole; round this pole the slender vine is twined, and its graceful trails hang in festoons from the crown of Elm branches which are left at the top of the pole to give shade. In poetry you read of the Vine tree wedded to the common Elm, which it clasps with its clinging arms.

Elm tree wood is very valuable as timber. These rough bosses which grow on the trunk are prized by cabinet-makers, who find the wood curiously veined and streaked.

The inner lining of the bark is very tough, and is made into ropes and garden string or bast, as in the Lime tree. And the wood is sought for all purposes where durability is needed; it lasts well in water, and is much in demand for ship-building.

The Wych Elm or Broad-leaved Elm resembles the Common Elm in many ways, but there are several small differences you must note. There is no brushwood sheaf clothing the base of the Wych Elm trunk; it is bare and rough right down to the ground. The leaves are larger and much broader, resembling those of the Hazel, and the branches of the Wych Elm are long and spreading and much more graceful than the twisted boughs of its sister Elm.

If you look carefully at the green wings that surround the tiny seed of the Wych Elm and compare it with those of the Common Elm, you will find that the seed lies nearly in the centre of the wing, and that the notch which is cut at the end of the wing is smaller than the deep notch of the Common Elm.