Welsh Journals

The History of the Elms of Wales In a recent paper (Richens & Jeffers 1985), the variation and distribution of the elm in Wales was studied in detail by means of a biometric analysis of leaf samples. The leaves for this purpose were collected systematically from the centre of the ancient parish nearest the mid point of each 10 km square of the Ordnance Survey grid. The pattern which emerged was considered in relation to various historical factors. The present study examines more fully the historical, linguistic and cultural indications of the presence of elm in Wales in former times and their bearing on the present distribution pattern. Taxonomically, the two-species concept has been adopted. The wych elm (Ulmus glabra Huds.) is a tree of spreading habit. The seed is central in the fruit, and the leaves are large with relatively short stalks. Unlike other elms, it does not produce suckers. The field elm (U. minor Mill.) has smaller leaves, relatively long leaf stalks, and the seed is apical in the fruit. Within this species, two clearly differentiated subtaxa occur in Wales. The English elm (U. minor var. vulgaris (Ait.) Richens [= U. procera Salisb.]), has a dense rounded canopy with dark green orbicular leaves, and the narrow-leaved elm (U. minor Miller var. minor) has narrower, usually lighter grean leaves, and a more open canopy. Two hybrids between wych elm and field elm also occur in Wales: the Dutch elm (U. x hollandica var. hollandica), with large coarse leaves and an open, irregular canopy, and the Huntingdon elm (U. x hollandica var. vegeta), with large smooth leaves and a closed, fan-shaped canopy. Three other hybrid forms have also been distinguished which are of rare occurrence and have no vernacular names. The distributions of wych elm and English elm are shown in Fig. 1. Regions where elm is conspicuous in the landscape are designated in the same way as those published for England (Richens 1983). Regions where wych elm is frequent received a 'G', and where English elm is frequent, a 'V'. Where both coexist at high frequency, both letters appear as 'GV'. Over much of Wales, elm of any sort is rare and such areas are indicated by a 'Z'. The regions are numbered so as to accord with and R. H. Richens continue the elm region enumeration already published. The Dutch elm, on account of its relatively late introduction, has been ignored in demarcating elm regions. In Wales, as in England, the wych elm is the only native elm, and this must be the species found in many pollen profiles. It declines at the close of the Atlantic period, particularly in the west. The effect of the elm decline seems to have been to restrict what was previously a widely distributed tree to certain favoured areas, in particular the middle stretches of the larger rivers. The G and GV regions of Fig. 1 are believed to be, in general, areas in which wych elm is native and has been present continuously since its first arrival. It is noticeable that most of the areas are in east Wales, suggesting that the more exposed western landscapes are not congenial terrain for this species. It has been argued (Richens 1983, pp. 26, 27) that the earliest introduction of elms by man into the British Isles may be of Later Bronze Age date, so from this time onwards it cannot be assumed that the elm of the pollen profiles is necessarily wych elm. Much of the historical evidence for the earlier occurrence of elm in Wales depends on mentions of the Welsh name for this tree, whether as a common name or an element in place or field names. Here, there are difficulties. The present Welsh name for the elm is llwyf (singular llwyfen), probably cognate with Old Irish lem, and possibly with an Indoeuropean root *lm- that gave both English elm and Latin ulmus. However, llwyf was used in earlier times as an umbrella term covering both elm and lime (Tilia L.). It renders, for instance, the tilia in the 'Prophecies of Merlin' embedded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Historia regum Britanniae' in the almost contemporary Welsh version of this work. Other cases of failure to distinguish between these two genera in vernacular nomenclature are discussed by Richens (1983, p. 32). Both lime species are indigenous in Wales but are far less frequent than the elms, so it is likely that most of the early allusions to llwyf