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Great Elm (Boston)
The Great Elm stood at the center of the Boston Common until February 15, 1876.〔Friends of the Public Garden, ''Images of America: Boston Common'' (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2005), 61.〕 The earliest maps of the area only showed three trees, one of which was the Great Elm. The other two trees, one of which was most likely the famed Liberty Tree, had been lost long before the Great Elm finally fell in the nineteenth century.〔Mary Farwell Ayer, ''Early Days on Boston Common'' (Boston: Privately Printed, 1910), 4.〕 Up to that point, the elm symbolized the Boston Common's landscape since—an early advocate for urban improvement asserted—the figure represented the finest example of "the favorite ornamental tree among us." The Great Elm's popularity inspired broader environmental efforts within the region. Consequently, planters believed that they "must plant (and oaks ) for posterity," implicitly hoping that their efforts would result in a similar majestic outcome.〔A Friend of Improvement, ''The Boston Common, or Rural Walks in Cities'' (Boston: George W. Light, 1838), 33.〕 These ancillary planting efforts elevated the popularity of the largest tree in the area, the Great Elm.
==Age and history==
The tree has garnered the attention of Boston citizens throughout time. Nineteenth century boosters like Nehemiah Adams promoted the tree as the central actor of "the history of Boston and of our revolution."〔Nehemiah Adams, ''Boston Common'' (Boston: William D. Ticknor and H.B. Williams, 1842), 13.〕 It was "often referred to as Boston's Oldest Inhabitant".〔 Regular measurements highlight the impressiveness of the Great Elm's presence. According to Celebrate Boston, "in 1825 it was sixty-five feet high, the circumference at thirty inches from the ground being twenty-one feet eight inches, and the spread of the branches eighty-six feet." Over time, the tree continued to grow. By 1855, it stood "seventy-two feet and a half feet high; height of the first branch to the ground, twenty-two and a half foot; girth four feet from the ground, seventeen feet; average diameter of the greatest span of branches, one hundred and one feet."〔(Celebrate Boston, "Boston Common Great Elm," ) accessed May 15, 2015.〕 While the tremendous size of the tree attracted visitors, the weight and attention also placed enormous stress on the elderly tree that eventually contributed to its downfall.
The Boston Society of Natural History funded a scientific and historical study of the tree to determine its age and importance to the city, region, and nation. They noted that "the tree is an American Elm, belonging to a species admired and cultivated abroad for its gracefully pendant branches." Based on their research, they concluded that by 1722 the tree was already over one hundred years old, because of textual descriptions regarding its size. As such, in 1855 they concluded that "there is nothing improbable in the belief that the Elm on Boston Common is more than two hundred years old."〔J.C. Warren, ''The Great Tree on Boston Common'' (Boston: John Wilson & Son, 1855), 6, 16.〕
While some groups sought to scientifically determine the age of The Great Elm, apocryphal tales also attempted to highlight the history of the famous tree. Samuel Barber showed that, by 1670, a tradition emerged that "Hezekiah Henchman, or his father Daniel" planted the tree. Some have attempted to connect this to the Hancock family since a Henchman descendent, Lydia, married Thomas Hancock. Thomas and Lydia adopted his nephew, John Hancock, who later became the President of the Second Continental Congress and Governor of Massachusetts.〔Samuel Barber. ''Boston Common: A Diary of Notable Events, Incidents, and Neighboring Occurrences'' (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1916), 35-36.〕 In so doing, folklorists sought to connect The Great Elm with an iconic figure of the Revolutionary War era.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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