rough; the older branchlets grayish, or grayish purple. The leaves are on short, stout, hairy and rough footstalks, very large, from four to seven inches long, and three or four wide; heart-shaped and very unequal-sided at base, the upper side being full and spreading back over the footstalk; the termination a long slender point; the margin coarsely and doubly, rather obtusely serrate; both surfaces very rough, the lower less so, but hairy on the veins and nerves, which are prominent, parallel, straight, and usually divided towards the edge. The upper surface is a pale green, the lower much whiter; veins irregular, reticulate; serratures less falcate than in the common elm. The surface of the latter is rough in one direction, and smooth in the other; of the slippery, rough in both. The buds are small, acute, and black. The larger branches are brownish, somewhat striate, the bark cracking and becoming ragged at an earlier age than in most trees. On the young and vigorous branches, the leaves are often eight or ten inches long, by four or five broad, and of an oblong shape. The bark is tough and mucilaginous, with abundant mucilage beneath it. The flowers are in lateral clusters, on short footstalks. The flower-cup is usually divided into seven parts, and has seven long stamens with dark purple anthers. The ovary is compressed, surmounted by two, purple, glandular styles. The seed vessel, or samara, is larger than that of the common elm, and with a broader and more entire border.

The slippery elm is rare in the eastern part of the State. I have not found it, growing naturally, nearer to Boston than Natick. In the western counties, it is more abundant. In many places I have found it dead or dying, from having been stripped of its bark. The largest tree of this kind which I have measured, was six feet ten inches in circumference, at four feet from the ground. It was found growing in Natick. Contrary to the observation of Michaux, I have found this tree growing in rich low ground, much more frequently than on higher.

The inner bark of this elm contains a great quantity of mucilage, and is a favorite popular prescription, in many parts of the country, for dysentery, and in affections of the chest.

It is much to be regretted that the slippery elm has become

so rare.

The inner bark is one of the best applications known for affections of the throat and lungs. Flour prepared from the bark by drying perfectly and grinding, and mixed with milk, like arrow-root, is a wholesome and nutritious food for infants. and invalids.

Dr. Darlington says that, in the last war with Great Britain, the soldiers on the Canada frontier, found this, in times of scarcity of forage, a grateful and nutritious food for their horses.

Michaux considers the wood of the slippery elm as superior to that of the white. He says, "The heart is coarser-grained, and less compact than that of the white elm, and of a dull red tinge. I have remarked that the wood, even in branches of one or two inches in diameter, consists principally of perfect wood. This species is stronger, and more durable when exposed to the weather, and of a better quality than the white elm; hence, in the Western States, it is employed with greater advantage in the construction of houses, and sometimes of vessels, on [the banks of the Ohio. It is the best wood of the United States for blocks, and its scarceness in the Atlantic States is the only cause of its limited consumption in the ports. It makes excellent rails, which are of long duration, and are formed with little labor, as the trunk divides itself easily and regularly this is probably the reason that it is never employed for the naves of wheels."-Michaux, Vol. III, p. 90.

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I find, however, that it is used for the purpose of making hubs in some places in the western part of the State, and is preferred to the white elm. It is so rare in the eastern part of the State, that I have not been able to find any one in this

quarter acquainted with its properties.

Michaux found this elm in all parts of Canada and of the United States, except the maritime parts of Carolina and Georgia.

Sp. 3 THE ENGLISH ELM. COMMON EUROPEAN ELM. Ulmus campestris. Linn. Introduced.

In Boston, and some towns in the immediate vicinity, many of the finest elms are of this species. They are said to have been first imported and planted by a wheelwright, for his own

use in making hubs for wheels, for which purpose they are probably superior to any other wood known. They have come, however, to be far too valuable, as trees of ornament, to be often cut down for use. The English elm is a noble tree. If it has less grace than the American, it has more stateliness and grandeur. It has more of the strength of the oak. It is distinguished from the American elm by its bark, which is darker and much more broken; by having one principal stem which soars upwards to a great height, and by its branches, which are thrown out more boldly and abruptly, and at a larger angle. Its limbs stretch out horizontally, or tend upwards, with an appearance of strength to the very extremity. In the American, they are almost universally drooping at the end. Its leaves are closer, smaller, more numerous, and of a darker color. It has been objected to this elm by Gilpin, (Forest Scenery, I, p. 90,) that it wants a definite character, that it has often so great a resemblance to an oak that it may, at a distance, be mistaken for it. The observation is undoubtedly well founded, but to one who would gladly have the satisfaction of looking on the king of trees, but cannot wait for its tardy growth, it is very far from an objection. The American elm is so planted every where, that it is possible to be weary of seeing it; in which case, as a variety, the sight of a stately English elm is a relief. It has, moreover, the advantage of being clothed in an unchanged foliage, several weeks longer than our native tree.

The English elm continues to increase for one hundred, or one hundred and fifty years, and probably much longer, although, compared with the oak, it is not a long-lived tree, the very old ones being usually hollow at the base. For several centuries it has been planted for ornament, on avenues and public walks in France, Spain and the Low Countries, and in England, immemorially. When full grown, it is four or five feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy feet high. Raised from seed, it forms innumerable varieties, distinguished by their difference in habit and appearance, time of leaf and peculiarity of hue, and by the qualities of the wood. These varieties, some of them very valuable, are propagated by shoots, and by grafting. Like the American elm, it is of very rapid growth.

Evelyn says it has been known to rise to the height of a hundred feet in less than a century.

Many large elms are described by Loudon and Strutt, and several of the most remarkable in England are figured by the latter in his Sylva Britannica. The finest of these, the Chipstead Elm, "is sixty feet high, twenty feet in circumference at the base, and fifteen feet eight inches at three feet and a half from the ground. It contains 268 feet of timber. Its venerable trunk is richly mantled with ivy, and gives signs of considerable age; but the luxuriance of its foliage attests its vigor, and it is as fine a specimen of its species in full beauty as can be found."-Sylva Britannica, p. 60.

"The Crawley Elm stands in the village of Crawley, on the high road from London to Brighton. It is a well known object to all who are in the habit of travelling that way, and arrests the eye of the stranger at once by its tall and straight stem, which ascends to the height of seventy feet, and by the fantastic ruggedness of its wildly spreading roots. Its trunk is perforated to the very top, measuring sixty-one feet in circumference at the ground, and thirty-five feet round the inside at two feet from the base." (Ib. p. 62.) This tree is not so large as would seem from this account, as it diminishes very rapidly upwards. There are many fine trees of this kind in Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and some other neighboring towns, but none of very great size.

The largest on the Mall, bordering Boston Common, was measured by Prof. Gray and myself in 1844, and found to be twelve feet and three inches in circumference at three feet from the lower side, and eleven feet two inches at five feet. It is a stately and very beautiful tree. The European elms on Paddock's Mall, near Park Street Church, are said to have been planted in 1762, by Major Adino Paddock and Mr. John Ballard. In 1826, several of them measured nine feet at four from the ground, having grown more than one and a half inches a year. Several of them now measure nine feet ten inches at four feet, having grown only half an inch annually, for the last twenty years. This, however, is not surprising, as they are immediately surrounded on all sides by an almost impenetrable pave

ment, and must get all their nutriment from a distance on one side, beyond a heavy wall. A differently constructed gutter, allowing the water and drainings of the street to penetrate, would doubtless quicken their growth.

The noblest and most beautiful English elms in this vicinity are found on the grounds of the country residence of Henry Codman, Esq., in Roxbury. The largest stands by the principal gate in front. At three feet from the ground, it measures seventeen feet and five inches; at five feet, fifteen feet ten inches. It has lost several of its lower limbs, and with them. much of its beauty; but it holds its size fully to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet, where it divides into three large branches, the main, central one of which, rises upwards to a height much above one hundred feet, perhaps to one hundred and twenty or one hundred and twenty-five. Another, standing on the lawn, within the enclosure, has nearly the same elevation, with a girth of twelve feet eight inches at three feet, and eleven feet seven at five. Several trees of the same kind in the rear of the house are known to have been planted in 1796, so that they have now been planted nearly fifty years. The largest and most northerly of these measures eight feet eleven inches at three feet from the ground. Two others, being the most westerly ones, have each a girth of seven feet ten inches at three feet. The largest of these has thus made an annual growth of more than two inches annually, and the others but little less. All these trees are favorably situated, in the midst of highly cultivated grounds, and the last mentioned grow in a moist situation near a never failing stream.

The uses of this tree in England and on the continent of Europe, are very numerous. Its wood is of a brownish color, and is hard and fine grained, and of great lateral adhesion, and it is little liable to crack or split when exposed to sun or weather. It is therefore much employed for ship's blocks, and other wooden parts of the rigging. It is also remarkable for its durability in water. It is employed for the keels of large ships, and for pumps, water-pipes and troughs; for mills and water-wheels, piles, ship-planks beneath the water line; also for gates and rails, the knotty for hubs of wheels, the straight and smooth