The English Elm may be seen on Boston Common, and in front of old
mansions in Medford and other ancient towns in Massachusetts. Very few
trees of this species, however, have been planted since the Revolution.
This royal Elm seems to have lost favor when republicanism took the
place of monarchy. Yet in many points the English Elm is superior to the
American species. It is not a drooping tree; it resembles the oak in its
general form, but surpasses it in height. The trunk is not subdivided;
throughout its entire length, the branches are attached to it by wide
angles, sometimes spread out in an almost horizontal direction. Selby
remarks, that, “in point of magnitude, grandeur of form, and majestic
growth, the English Elm has few competitors in the British sylva.” In
the form of the leaf and spray it closely resembles the American tree;
but the leaf is of a brighter green, it comes out several days earlier
in the spring, and continues green in the fall a week or ten days after
the American elm has become entirely denuded. The same difference, in a
less degree, has been observed in the leafing and falling of the leaf of
all European trees, compared with their kindred species in the American
forest.