Specific characters of U. campestris. Leaves rhomboid-ovate, acuminate, wedge-shaped, and oblique at the base, always scabrous above, doubly and irregularly serrated, downy beneath; serratures incurved. Branches wiry, slightly corky; when young, bright-brown, pubescent. Fruit oblong, deeply cloven, naked.
In favourable situations, the common Elm becomes a large timber-tree, of considerable beauty and utility, naturally growing upright. It is the first tree to put forth its light and cheerful green in spring, a tint which contrasts agreeably with the foliage of the oak, whose leaf has generally, in its early state, more of an olive cast. We see them often in fine harmony together about the end of April and the beginning of May. The Elm is also frequently found planted with the Scotch fir. In spring, its light green is very discordant with the gloomy hue of its companion; but as the year advances, the Elm leaf takes a darker tint, and unites in harmony with the fir. 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 Elm was considered by the ancients of Eastern nations as a funereal tree, as well as the cypress. It is celebrated in the Iliad, for having formed a hasty bridge, by which Achilles escaped the Xanthus, when that river, by its overflowing, placed him in danger of being carried away. It has been suggested that the Romans probably introduced it, and planted it on the graves of their departed heroes. It was well-known among the Latins. Virgil says, that the husbandmen bent the young Elm, whilst growing, into the proper shape, for their buris or plough-tail:
Young Elms with early force in copses bow,
Fit for the figure of the crooked plough.
Dryden.
The Romans esteemed the Elm to be the natural support and friend of the vine; and the feeling that a strong sympathy subsisted between plants, led them never to plant one without the other. The gravest of Latin authors speak of the Elm as husband of the vine; and Pliny tells us, that that Elm is a poor spouse that does not support three vines. This mode of marrying the vine to the Elm gave rise to the elegant insinuation of Vertumnus to Pomona, whose story may be found in Ovid:
"If that fair Elm," he cried, "alone should stand,
No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand:
Or, if that vine without her Elm should grow,
'Twould creep a poor neglected shrub below."
This union of the vine and the Elm is constantly alluded to by the poets. Tasso, as translated by Fairfax, says,
The married Elm fell with his fruitful vine.
The lofty Elm with creeping vines o'erspread.
Ovid.
Milton, narrating the occupations of Adam and Eve before the fall, sings,
—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.