CHAP* Cl.

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1401

dyers’ and printers’ rollers; the wood, by constant use, wearing smooth. Cart-wrights employ it for shafts, naves, beds, rails, and standards for wheel-barrows ; and the handles of spades, forks, and other agricultural implements.”The price of the wood of U. campestris is from Is. to Is. 4 d. per cubic foot, andthat of U. montana is from Is. 8d. to 2s. Young plants of the former, 6 ft.high, are 6 d. each; but of the latter, only 12s. per hundred. (Yol. xii. p. 409.)As an ornamental tree, Sang observes, “ the Scotch elm cannot be termedbeautiful; but, certainly, an aged elm, when standing singly, is a very capitalobject. In the form of its branches, and its general outline, it much resemblesthe oak. Hence, in many of the recently improved places in Scotland (where this tree chiefly abounds), it has been reserved as an ornamental tree,and, in this particular, is an excellent substitute for the oak. Even where theoak and the chestnut abound (as at Alva), the Scotch elm maintains its place,with excellent effect, as a park tree.” ( Sang’s PI. Cal., p. 86.) Gilpin saysof the] wych elm, that it “ is, perhaps, generally more picturesque than the com-mon sort, as it hangs more negligently, though, at the same time, with thisnegligence, it loses in a good degree that happy surface for catching masses oflight which we admire in the common elm. We observe, also, when we seethis tree in company with the common elm, that its bark is somewhat of alighter hue. The wych elm is a native of Scotland , where it is found, notonly in the plains and valleys of the Lowlands, but is hardy enough to climbthe steeps, and flourish in the remotest Highlands ; though it does not attain,in those climates, the size which it attains in England. Naturalists supposethe wych elm to be the only species of this tree which is indigenous to ourisland.” ( Gilpin’s Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 44.) On this passage, Sir ThomasDick Lauder observes, “ We are disposed to think that Mr. Gilpin hardlydoes justice to this elm. For our parts, we consider the wych, or Scottish,elm as one of the most beautiful trees in our British sylva. The trunk isso bold and picturesque in form, covered, as it frequently is, with huge ex-crescences ; the limbs and branches are so free and graceful in their growth; andthe foliage is so rich, without being leafy or clumpy as a whole ; and the headis, generally, so finely massed, and yet so well broken, as to render it one ofthe^ noblest of park trees ; and, when it grows wildly amid the rocky sceneryof its native Scotland , there is no tree which assumes so great or sopleasing a variety of character.” ( Lauder's Gilpin, i. p. 91.) One of themost common uses of this tree, in British nurseries, is as a stock for the dif-ferent sorts of English and American elms.

Popular Superstitions. In many parts of the country, the wych elm, or"itch hazel, as it is still occasionally called, is considered a preservative againstwitches; probably from the coincidence between the words wych and witch.In some of the midland counties, even to the present day, a little cavity ismade in the churn, to receive a small portion of witch hazel, without whichthe dairy-maids imagine that they would not be able to get the butter tocome.

Soil and Situation. “ The Scotch elm,” Sang observes, “ accommodatesitself, both in a natural state and when planted, to many different soils andsituations. The soil in which it most luxuriates is a deep rich loam ; but that inwhich it becomes most valuable, is a sandy loam, lying on rubble stone, or on drytock. It ; s frequently found flourishing by the sides of rivers or streams,which sometimes wash part of its roots; yet it will not endure stagnantmoisture. In wet tilly clays, as at Panmure in Forfarshire, it soon sickens.On bleak hills, among rocks, and where soil is hardly perceptible, its rootswill often find nourishment, and the tree will arrive at a considerable size,in a mixture of loam and clay schistus, incumbent on whinstone rock, as atAlva, it arrives at a large size within a century.” {Plant. Cal., p. 56.)

* jypcgation and Culture. The Scotch elm does not produce suckers likehe English elm; but, according to Boutcher, it roots more readily from layersan that species. The most ready mode of propagating it, however, is byseeds, which are produced in great abundance, and are ripe about the middle