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.
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