The natural history of Selborne / By the late Rev. Gilbert White. With additions by Sir William Jardine.

  • Gilbert White
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of Selborne / By the late Rev. Gilbert White. With additions by Sir William Jardine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lean sand, till it mingles with the forest; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips. II. In the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these twenty years, a broad- leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro* of Ray, which, though it had lost a con- siderable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter.{ This elm I mention, to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain; as this tree sooner, according to the depth of the upper soil, in the centre of the trunk at the root, in the wood being of a darker colour, extending by degrees in circumference and up the stem, until the lower part of it becomes entirely deprived of vegetation, and assumes a tough and corky appearance. This extends to the whole plant, which gradually decays and dies. On the same soil the oak grows and thrives well. The “freestone”’ to which Mr. White refers is the white or grey, and may have a different effect on these trees.— “yes * The ulmus montana, Sir J. E. Smith, and the most common in Scotland. There are four additional species ad- mitted into the Flora of Great Britain, which are now to be generally met with in plantations that have been made within the last ten or twelve years.—-W. J. + The dimensions here alluded to are insignificant when compared with those of a witch elm recorded by Mr. Evelyn, growing in Sir Walter Bagegot’s Park, in the county of Stafford, which, after two men had been five days felling, lay 40 yards in length, and was at the stool 17 feet diameter. It broke in the fall, 14 loads of wood; 48 in the top ; yield- ing 8 pair of naves, 8660 feet of boards and planks ; it cost BO
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