_OLD ACQUAINTANCES: THE ELMS._
Miss Harson had admonished her little flock that they must use their own
eyes and be able to tell her things instead of depending altogether on
her to tell them; so now they were all peering curiously among the trees
to see which were putting on their new spring suits. The yellow trees
and the pink trees had been readily distinguished, but, although the
others had not been idle, it was not so easy for little people to
discern their leaf-buds.
Clara soon made a discovery, however, of what her governess had noticed
for a day or two, and the wonder was found on their own home-elms, those
stately trees which had shaded the house ever since it was built, and
from which the place got its pretty name--Elmridge.
"Well, dear," said Miss Harson, coming to the upper window from which an
eager head was thrust, "what is it that you wish me to see?"
"Those funny flowers on the bare elm trees," was the reply. "Look, Miss
Harson! Didn't I see them first?"
"You have certainly spoken of them first, for neither Malcolm nor Edith
has said anything about them. But they must both come up here now, where
they can see them, and Malcolm and I can manage to reach some of the
blossoms by getting out of the broad window on to the little balcony."
Up came the two children kangaroo-fashion in a series of jumps, and
presently Miss Harson was holding a cluster of dark maroon-colored
flowers in her hand.
"How queer and dark they make the trees look!" said Malcolm; "and
they're so thick that they 'most cover up the branches. They're
like fringe."
"A very good description," replied his governess. "And now I wish you
all to examine the trees very thoroughly and tell me afterward what you
have noticed about them; then we will go down to the schoolroom and see
what the books will tell us in our talk about the American elm and its
cousin of England."
The books had a great deal to tell about them, but Miss Harson preferred
to hear the children first.
"What did my little Edith see when she looked out of the window?" she
asked.
"Stems of trees," was the reply, "with flowers on 'em."
"A very good general idea," continued Miss Harson, "but perhaps Clara
can tell us something more particular about the elms?"
"They are very tall," said Clara, hesitatingly, "and they make it nice
and shady in summer; and some of the branches bend over in such a lovely
way! Papa calls one of them 'the plume.'"
"And now Malcolm?"
"The trunk--or big 'stem,' as Edie would call it--is very thick, and the
branches begin low down, near the ground."
"Some of them do," said his governess, "but many of the elms on your
father's grounds are seventy feet high before the branches begin.
Sometimes two or three trunks shoot up together and spread out at the
top in light, feathery plumes like palm trees. The elm has a great
variety of shapes; sometimes it is a parasol, when a number of branches
rise together to a great height and spread out suddenly in the shape of
an umbrella. This makes a very regular-looking and beautiful tree. For
about three-quarters of the way up, the 'plume' of which Clara speaks
has one straight trunk, which then bends over droopingly. Small twigs
cluster around the trunk all the way from bottom to top and give the
tree the appearance of having a vine twining about it. I think that the
plume-shape is the prettiest and most odd-looking of all the elms.
Another strange shape is the vase, which seems to rest on the roots that
stand out above the ground. 'The straight trunk is the neck of the vase,
and the middle consists of the lower part of the branches as they swell
outward with a graceful curve, then gradually diverge until they bend
over at their extremities and form the lip of the vase by a circle of
terminal sprays.'"
"Have we any trees that look like vases, Miss Harson?" asked Clara.
"Yes," was the reply; "not far from Hemlock Lodge there is one which we
will look at when the leaves are all out. But you must not expect to
find a perfect vase-shape, for it is only an approach to it. The
dome-shaped elm has a broad, round head, which is formed by the shooting
forth of branches of nearly equal length from the same part of the
trunk, which gradually spread outward with a graceful curve into the
roof or dome that crowns the tree."
"I know something else about our elms," said Malcolm: "some of the roots
are on top of the ground. Isn't that very queer, Miss Harson?"
[Illustration: WYCH-ELM LEAVES.]
"Not for old elm trees, as this is quite a habit with them. Indeed, in
many ways, the elm is so entirely different from other trees that it can
be recognized at a great distance. It is both graceful and majestic,
and is the most drooping of the drooping trees, except the willow, which
it greatly surpasses in grandeur and in the variety of its forms. The
green leaves are broad, ovate, heart-shaped, from two to four or five
inches long. You can see their exact shape in this illustration. Their
summer tint is very bright and vivid, but it turns in autumn to a sober
brown, sometimes touched with a bright golden yellow, And now,"
continued Miss Harson, "we will examine the flowers which we have here,
and we see that each blossom is on a green, slender thread less than
half an inch long, and that it consists of a brown cup parted into
seven or eight divisions, rounded at the border and containing about
eight brown stamens and a long compressed ovary surmounted by two short
styles. This ripens into a flattened seed-vessel before the leaves are
fully out, and the seeds, being small and chaffy, are wafted in all
directions and carried to great distances by the wind."
"Where does slippery elm come from?" asked Clara.
"From another American species, dear, which is very much like the white
elm that we have been considering. The slippery elm is a smaller tree,
does not droop so much, and the trunk is smoother and darker. The leaves
are thicker and very rough on the upper side. The inner bark contains a
great deal of mucilage--that, I suppose, is the reason for its being
called 'slippery'--and it has been extensively used as a medicine. The
wood is very strong and preferred to that of the white elm for
building-purposes, although the latter is considered the best native
wood for hubs of wheels. There is a great elm tree on Boston Common
which is over two hundred years old, and another in Cambridge called the
'Washington Elm,' because near it or beneath its shade General
Washington is said to have first drawn his sword on taking command of
the American army. In 1744 the celebrated George Whitefield preached
beneath this tree."
"I'm glad we have elm trees here," said Malcolm, "though I s'pose nobody
ever did anything in particular under ours."
"You mean," replied his governess, laughing, "that they are not
_historical_ trees; but they are certainly very fine ones. There is
another species of elm, the English, which is often seen in this country
too. It is a very large and stately tree, but not so graceful as our own
elm. It is distinguished from the American elm by its bark, which is
darker and much more broken; by having one principal stem, which soars
upward 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 upward with an appearance of strength to the very
extremity; in the American elm they are almost universally drooping at
the end. Its leaves are closer, smaller, more numerous and of a darker
color. In England this tree is a great favorite with those black and
solemn birds the rooks. The poet Hood writes of it as
"'The tall, abounding elm that grows
In hedgerows up and down,
In field and forest, copse and park,
And in the peopled town,
With colonies of noisy rooks
That nestle on its crown.'
"Some of these English elms are very ancient and of an immense size; one
of them, known as the 'Chequer Elm,' measures thirty-one feet around the
trunk, of which only the shell is left. It was planted seven hundred
years ago. The Chipstead Elm is fifteen feet around; the Crawley Elm,
thirty-five. A writer says, 'The ample branches of the Crawley Elm
shelter Mayday gambols while troops of rustics celebrate the opening of
green leaves and flowers. Yet not alone beneath its shade, but within
the capacious hollow which time has wrought in the old tree, young
children with their posies and weak and aged people find shelter during
the rustic _fêtes_.'"
"Does that mean that people can sit inside the tree?" asked Clara. "I
wish we had one to play house in where Hemlock Lodge is."
"That is one of the things, Clara," replied Miss Harson, "that people
can have only in the place where they grow. In the South of England
there is another great elm tree with a hollow trunk which has fitted
into it a door fastened by a lock and key. A dozen people can be
comfortably accommodated inside, and there is a story told of a woman
and her infant who lived there for a time."
"What a funny house!" said Malcolm. "Just like a woodpecker's."
"Another great elm, near London, has a winding staircase cut within it,
and a turret at the top where at least twenty persons can stand. One
species of this tree, called the _wych-_, or _witch-_, elm, was believed
by ignorant people to possess magical powers and to defend from the
malice of witches the place on which it grew. Even now it is said that
in remote parts of England the dairymaid flies to it as a resource on
the days when she churns her butter. She gathers a twig from the tree
and puts it into a little hole in the churn. If this practice were
neglected, she confidently believes that she might go on churning all
day without getting any butter."
"Isn't that silly?" exclaimed Clara.
"Very silly indeed," replied her governess; "but we must remember that
the poor ignorant girl knows no better. The wood of the European elm is
stronger than ours; it is hard and fine-grained, and brownish in color,
and is much used in the building of ships, for hubs of wheels, axletrees
and many other purposes. In France the leaves and shoots are used to
feed cattle. In Russia the leaves of one variety are made into tea. The
inner bark is in some places made into mats, and in Norway they
kiln-dry it and grind it with corn as an ingredient in bread. So that
the elm tree is almost as useful as it is beautiful."
[Illustration]