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.
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