310 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



In the Middle States, the white elm stretches to a great height, 

 but does not approach trie magnificence of vegetation which it 

 displays in the countries peculiarly adapted to its growth. In 

 clearing the primitive forests a few stocks are sometimes .left 

 standing ; insulated in this manner, it appears in all its majesty, 

 towering to the height of 80 or 100 feet, with a trunk 4 or 5 

 feet in diameter, regularly shaped, naked, and insensibly 

 diminishing to the height of 60 or 70 feet, where it divides 

 itself into two or three primary branches. The limbs, not 

 widely divergent near the base, approach and cross each other 

 eight or ten feet higher, and diffuse on all sides, long, flexible, 

 pendulous branches, bending into regular arches and floating 

 lightly in the air. A singularity in this tree which exists in no 

 other ; two small limbs four or five feet long grow in a reversed 

 position near the first ramification, and descend along the trunk, 

 which is covered with a white, tender bark very deeply furrowed. 

 The leaves of this tree are four or five inches long, borne by 

 short petioles, alternate, unequal at the base, oval-acuminate and 

 doubly denticulated, They are generally smaller than those of 

 the red elm, of a thinner texture and a smoother surface, with 

 more regular and prominent ribs. It differs, also, essentially 

 from the red and European elm in its flowers and seeds : it 

 blooms in the month of April, previous to the unfolding of the 

 leaves ; the flowers are very small, of a purple color, supported 

 by short, slender foot stalks, and united in bunches at the 

 extremity of the branches. The seeds are contained in a flat, 

 oval, fringed capsule, notched at the base : the season of their 

 maturity is from the 15th of May to the first of June. 



The wood of this tree, like that of the European elm, is of a 

 dark brown, and, cut transversely or obliquely to the longitudinal 

 fibres, it exhibits the same numerous and fine undulations ; but 

 it splits more easily, and has less compactness, hardness and 

 strength. This wood is used at New York and farther north for the 

 naves of coach wheels. It is not admitted into the construction 

 of houses or of vessels, except occasionally in the state of Maine 

 for keels, for which it is adapted only by its size. Its bark is 

 easily detached during eight months of the year ; soaked in water 



