294 MR. A. HENRY ON ELM-SEEDLINGS 
seedlings of the Huntingdon elm. Some of the characters will interact on 
each other; and аз а result, there is a possibility of nearly all the known 
varieties of elms appearing in the F, generation, 7. e. amongst the Huntingdon 
elm-seedlings. At this moment, at Cambridge, there are numerous seedlings 
of the Huntingdon elm in the fields and hedgerows, some of which will 
survive, and constitute, when they grow up, peculiar elms for botanists to 
quarrel about, and from whieh nurserymen could make selections. 
Sowings of a considerable number of peculiar elms, e. g., of a remarkable 
elm at Cambridge which has small leaves and minute fruit, of the Jersey elm, 
of trees called Cornish elm at Kew, &e., &c., all show mixed seedlings, of 
which I may quote a few examples. 
A tree at Colesbourne, supposed to be U. glabra, but which differs from 
the pure species in having larger leaves, differently shaped and much thicker 
in texture, when sown, gave 245 opposite-leaved seedlings and 95 alternate- 
leaved seedlings. This is quite near the 3 : 1 ratio, and there is no doubt 
that this tree is one of the descendants of U. glabra x U. montana ; but as 
this type of tree is common, we can imagine it to be a descendant from a very 
early cross, made perhaps hundreds of years ago. 
The seed of the Jersey elm from a tree in the Southampton Cemetery 
gave only a small number of seedlings, 17 with opposite leaves and 19 with 
alternate leaves. With small numbers the ratio 3 : 1 is not observed. 
A tree in Huntingdonshire, considered by Rev. Aug. Ley to be a species 
indigenous to that county, gave 310 opposite-leaved and 84 alternate-leaved 
seedlings. In crowded boxes, the ratio 3 : 1 is not accurately observed. 
As regards the fertility of the seed, the two pure species and the 
Huntingdon elm are excessively fertile. The other varieties, which I consider 
to be descendants, are very variable in fertility, as witnessed by the appear- 
ance of the boxes, some crowded with seedlings, others with only one 
seedling or with none. Of the “ English elm," 19 different boxes, of seed 
gathered at Cambridge, at Kew, in the Isle of Wight, in Gloucestershire, 
near Exeter, &e., showed not a single seedling. A few seed gathered at 
Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, which looked better than any I saw elsewhere, pro- 
duced one seedling. A tree at Bayfordbury produced two seedlings, which, 
however, I look upon as doubtful, as they may have come in from seed from 
an adjoining box. A tree at Cambridge, which is absolutely like the English 
elm in all respects, except that it is rather wide-spreading in habit, gave a 
single seedling like the Parkhurst seedling. 
An examination this year shows that the flowers of some of the “ varieties " 
tend to be malformed ; and I have no doubt that in the act of combination 
of the various characters that make up certain of the F, generation the re- 
productive organs are badly formed. This is possibly what has occurred in 
the “ English elm,” which no doubt would have soon disappeared if it had 
not been a free suckerer, and had not also been selected to a considerable 
