Wych Elm Tree
(Ulmus montana)

The name Wych is of uncertain origin. Turner uses it alone. In his "Names of Herbes" (1548), he says:--

"Vlmus is called in greeke Ptelea, in englishe an Elme tree, or a Wich tree, in duch ein vlme baume, or Ylmen or Rust baume, in frenche Orme."
 
From the resemblance of the name--which is indeed not infrequently written "Witch"--the tree has been considered a preservative against witchcraft, and in the midland counties a small piece of its wood used accordingly to be let into the churns, under the belief that without it the butter would not come.

The name, like that of the Common Elm, is applied to a number of tolerably distinct forms rather than to a well-marked typical species. These forms all agree in producing no suckers; their branches are usually pendulous; the "samara," or winged seed-vessel, is more or less elliptical, with the seed-cavity below the middle, and the seed is fertile. Though characters like that of the position of the seed-cavity in the fruit appear trivial to the  not botanical, they are often, as in this case, the most readily detected; and when we become familiar with the general appearance of growing plants such distinctions are often borne out by differences which it is more difficult to describe in words. The Wych Elms do not grow to quite so great a height as the Common Elms, though they equal them in girth. In some forms the bark is corky, but not in others; but in all the twigs are usually downy, and the leaves for the most part large, coarsely and irregularly toothed, and unequally or "obliquely" rounded at the base. The leaves thus closely resemble those of the Hazel, from which fact the tree obtained its old name of Wych Hazel.

The typical form of the Wych Elm has a smooth thin bark, and does not throw out heavy horizontal limbs, like the Common Elm. It flowers, too, rather earlier than the latter, and its samaras form conspicuous pale green, hop-like clusters on the otherwise bare boughs in April, before the appearance of its leaves. The stem is often of no great height, though attaining a large girth; and from the main ascending limbs numerous twiggy branches wave pendulously with a very pleasing effect when partly clothed by the unripe fruits or by the young leaf-buds in their tender greenery, whether the tree overhangs some steep-banked lane or stands isolated in a park. Gilpin says of it, that it

"is, perhaps, generally more picturesque than the common sort, as it hangs more negligently, though, at the same time, with this negligence it loses in a good degree that happy surface for catching masses of light which we admire in the Common Elm. We observe, also, when we see this tree in company with the Common Elm, that its bark is somewhat of a lighter hue."

Commenting on this passage, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder remarks:--

"We are disposed to think that Mr. Gilpin hardly does 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 is so bold and picturesque in form, covered, as it frequently is, with huge excrescences; the limbs and branches are so free and graceful in their growth; and the foliage is so rich, without being leafy or clumpy as a whole; and the head is generally so finely massed, and yet so well broken, as to render it one of the noblest of park trees; and when it grows wildly amid the rocky scenery of its native Scotland there is no tree which assumes so great or so pleasing a variety of character."

It must perhaps be admitted that at midsummer all Elms are dull in color, and not seldom heavy in outline. It is in spring and autumn that they are of most picturesque value in the landscape; and it is important that the beauties presented by them and by other trees at these seasons should be recognized alike by the artist and by the landscape gardener. The tree planter has the immense advantage over the painter that his materials are already blended by Nature; and imagination can suggest few color effects more harmonious than those she presents in the vinous tufts of staminate flowers on the boughs of the Elm in March, its pale green fruit clusters a little later, or the October change to a clear lemon-yellow spreading from bough to bough, each leaf paling to a pellucid grass-green as the autumnal tint encroaches upon its margin.

The Wych Elm grows more rapidly than the Common Elm, and its wood is consequently far inferior in hardness and compactness, besides being more liable to split. Statements to the contrary have arisen from the confusion in Scotland and the north of England of the spongy-timbered Cork Elm (U. suberosa) with the true Common Elm (U. campestris), which, as has been already stated, occurs but rarely north of the Trent. The wood of the Wych Elm is, however, tough, straight-grained, and, when steamed, flexible, so that it is-employed by boat-builders and cart-wrights, and in making pumps. As it does not splinter, but becomes smooth from constant wear, it is also sometimes used for rollers, for the handles of spades, and for wheel-barrows; whilst the excrescences on the stems are valuable for veneering. Gerard tells us that formerly longbows were made from the wood of this species, and its tough bark was made into ropes.

The Exeter Elm (U. montana exoniensis), occasionally seen in nursery gardens, is simply a "fastigiate" variety, having the leaves set closely round the erect branches. It has all the effect of an abnormal or monstrous form, without any redeeming beauty.

The Chichester Elm (U. montana vegeta), though it may have originated more than once, was raised in 1746 by Wood, a nurseryman at Huntingdon, from seed collected in the neighborhood. It is variously known as the Huntingdon, Scampston, or unfortunately as the American Elm, though it is, of course, quite distinct from the species (U. americana) with its fruits fringed with hairs, to which that name properly belongs. It is valuable as a timber-tree, and is of remarkably rapid growth, often sending up shoots six or ten feet long in a single season, and making a total growth of as much as thirty feet from the graft within ten years. According to Selby, there are many fine old specimens referable to this form in the counties of Huntingdon and Nottingham.

The Canterbury Elm (U. montana superba) was raised by the late W. Masters in his nursery at Canterbury, and distributed under the name of U. montana major--a name likely to lead to confusion with the Dutch Elm, the U. major of Sir J. E. Smith. The Canterbury seedling has very large leaves, and is of rapid growth, but is of no proved value as a timber tree.

The Dutch Elm (U. hollandica) has perhaps more claim than any of those just mentioned to rank as a distinct species; but it seldom matures its seed. It was introduced by William III. for clipped hedges, on account of its rapid growth. It has branches which spread almost as widely as those of the Common Elm, and the bark of which, at first smooth, becomes afterwards more corky than that of any other Elm, not excepting the form known as the Cork Elm (U. suberosa). The leaves are large and coarse; and the calyx-lobes and stamens each four in number, instead of the more frequent five. Many of the Elms near Kensington Palace belong to this variety; but except for its handsomely-furrowed bark and rapid growth, it has not much to specially recommend it, as its rapidity of development renders it liable to the defect known as "star-shake," which makes it less fit for boat-building or other uses.

The variety which, it is suggested, from its abundance in that county, may be known as the Essex Elm (U. nitida of Syme, or U. elegans of Edward Forster's MSS.), forms fine straight-stemmed trees with gracefully curving but only slightly pendulous boughs, and with leaves which are not very large, but smooth and shining, of a dark shade of green, and with a tapering point and regularly serrate margin, somewhat resembling in their elegant outline the foliage of the Hornbeam.

All these forms are classed as Wych Elms, from the seed-cavity in their samaras being below the centre, and several of them are worth consideration by the tree-planter. Like various foreign species, they are commonly grafted upon the hardy typical Scotch Elm, which is itself mainly reproduced from seed. As a park tree, no variety excels this typical form, which is seen to the best advantage when standing alone, as the drooping boughs are then able to display all their natural grace of curvature.

There are many fine specimens of this tree in the Low-lands of Scotland, and in various parts of England; but, from confusion of nomenclature, the Wych Elm is hardly distinguished from the Common Elm by the majority of Continental observers. At Ashtead Park, Surrey, there is a magnificent tree, said to date from the time of William Rufus. Its massive, though now much decayed, trunk, and lofty wide-spreading limbs, produce in the mind of the lover of trees a re-echo of Allan Quatermain's apostrophe:--

"I do love a good tree," he says. "There it stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful--a very type of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too, when it talks with the wind: a thousand AEolian harps cannot equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through the centuries--come storm, come shine--drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of its mother earth, and, as the slow years roll by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay. And so on and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs, dynasties--all save the landscape it adorns and human nature--till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke to his fungus-fingered work. Ah! one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!"

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