See Map: D, S 
SCOTCH ELM (WYCH ELM), 
CHINESE ELM 
Ulmus glabra, Ulmus parvifolia 
Our magnificent old Scotch elm (Ulmus 
glabra), with its gnarled trunk and 
crooked spreading branches, dates back 
to the time of Henry Shaw, the founder 
of the Garden. His papers record the 
purchase of eight young Scotch elms in 
or about 1861 from a plant dealer in 
Edinburgh, Scotland. The large speci- 
men just west of Tower Grove House 
may have been part of that purchase. 
Mother Nature has tried repeatedly to 
destroy this tough old tree. Two wind- 
storms in 1927 damaged the tree so badly 
that it was thought to be ruined. Records 
from the following year report that a 
Scotch elm, probably the tree in question, suffered severely in a May 
snowstorm. 
Scotch elms are at home across Europe from eastern Asia to the British 
Isles, where they flourish especially in Ireland and Scotland. 
A wheel hub found in Scotland that dated from the ancient Romans 
turned out to be elm wood, possibly this species. Wood from elms makes 
Ulmus glabra 
Summer 
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