Part 10

Generic characters of the Ulmi. Calyx campanulate, inferior, 4 to 5-cleft, persistent. Corolla none. Fruit a membranous, compressed, winged capsule (a samara), 1-seeded.

There stood the Elme, whose shade, so mildly dim, Doth nourish all that groweth under him.

W. Browne.

The Common Elm (U. campestris), after having assumed the dignity and hoary roughness of age, is not excelled in grandeur and beauty by any of its brethren. In this latter stage, it partakes so much of the character of the oak, that it is easily mistaken for it; though the oak--such an oak as is strongly marked with its peculiar character--can never be mistaken for the Elm. "This defect, however," says Gilpin, "appears chiefly in the skeleton of the Elm. In full foliage, its character is better marked. No tree is better adapted to receive grand masses of light. In this respect, it is superior both to the oak and the ash. Nor is its foliage, shadowing as it is, of the heavy kind. Its leaves are small, and this gives it a natural lightness; it commonly hangs loosely, and is in general very picturesque."

The Elm is not frequently met with in woods or forests, but is more commonly planted in avenues or other artificial situations. Cowper very accurately sketches the variety of form in the Elm, and alludes to the different sites where they are to be found. In the Task, he first introduces them rearing their lofty heads by the river's brink:

--There, fast rooted in his bank, Stand, never overlooked, our favourite Elms, That screen the herdsman's solitary hut.

Then he gives us an enchanting scene, where a lowly cot is surrounded by them:

'Tis perched upon the green hill-top, but close Environed with a ring of branching Elms, That overhang the thatch.

He then introduces us to a grove of Elms:

--The grove receives us next; Between the upright shafts of whose tall Elms We may discern the thrasher at his task.

The Elm is frequently referred to by the poets. Wordsworth thus speaks of a grove of them:

Upon that open level stood a grove, The wished-for port to which my course was bound. Thither I came, and there, amid the gloom Spread by a brotherhood of lofty Elms, Appeared a roofless hut.

In The Church Yard among the Mountains, he introduces one that seems to be the pride of the village:

--A wide-spread Elm Stands in our valley, named the JOYFUL TREE; From dateless usage which our peasants hold Of giving welcome to the first of May, By dances round its trunk.

And again:

--The Joyful Elm, Around whose trunk the maidens dance in May.

Dr. Hunter supposes that the Elm is a native of England. Philips, however, does not agree with this; but, admitting that the tree was known in England as early as the Saxon times, observes, that this does not prove the Elm to be indigenous to the soil, confuted as it is by Nature, which rarely allows it to propagate its species in this country according to her common rules; while in other countries, where the seed falls, young plants spring up as commonly as the oaks in Britain.

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,