260 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



their successors have become the most valued ornamental 

 feature of the New England landscape. An invading 

 army of pests threaten the existence of these cherished 

 trees, but a determined fight is being made to save them. 

 The American elm is a tree that well deserves first place 

 in the list of our ornamental trees. It is even more beauti- 

 ful in winter than summer, unless, perchance, some mis- 

 guided individual has attempted to improve on nature 



THE PALM LEAF FORM OF ELM 



The one-sided character of this tree is not well seen in a photograph, 

 but the name describes it well; it is just like a huge palm leaf 

 fan. This variety of the elm must be seen in the field to be 

 thoroughly appreciated. 



by pruning it and has thus marred its natural symmetry 

 of form. When the elm grows all its life in the open it 

 has a broad, rounded top. occasionally shaped like that of 

 an oak, but with more gracefully extended limbs. One of 

 the most common and striking forms has a vase-shaped 

 top. The trunk rises, a single shaft, for many feet above 

 the ground and then separates into several large branches, 

 which sweep upward and outward into wide arches and 

 terminate in masses of slender drooping twigs. Very 

 rarely the top is umbrella-shaped, the trunk remaining 

 entire nearly to the full height of the tree, and then 

 abruptly branching into a wide arch, fringed by long 

 drooping branchlets. With a shorter trunk an elm of this 

 type with its pendant sprays sweeping nearly to the 

 ground rivals the weeping willow in grace. Sometimes 

 the branches are stiffer, the long, straight trunk is feath- 

 ered with short branches and the top resembles a beautiful 

 plume. If it is desirable to plant an American elm that 

 will develop any particular form of top, elm seedlings 

 should be grafted with scions from a tree of the type 

 desired. 



The American elm is not only picturesque, but is also 

 a large and useful lumber tree. In the forest it holds 

 its head aloft on a clean, straight trunk. Its medium- 

 sized flattened top is composed of many heavy twisted 



branches. The usual size is 2 to 4 feet in diameter and 

 SO to 100 feet in height, but elms 8 to 11 feet in diameter 

 and 120 to 140 feet high have been known. One of the 

 largest American elms on record was the Hatfield Elm, in 

 Massachusetts, which had a circumference of 34 feet at a 

 point 3 feet above the ground. 



The elms belong to the nettle family, and about fifteen 

 species are known in the world, most of which are trees. 

 Six species are native to North America. The American 

 elm is commonly known as white elm and sometimes as 

 gray elm or water elm. It is found growing native from 

 Newfoundland across Canada to the Rocky Mountains 

 and south to Florida and Texas. Few of our trees have 

 a wider distribution. Associated with it in portions of 

 its range are the slippery or red elm, the cork or rock elm, 

 and the winged elm or wahoo. The English elm has also 

 been planted in the eastern United States to a limited 

 extent. 



The American elm is so well known that it requires 

 little description. The bark of the trunk is rather thick 

 and rough, dark gray in color, irregularly furrowed into 

 wide, flat, firm ridges. The ridges are sometimes covered 

 with flaky scales, or. on old trees, with corky plates, that 

 give the trunk a somewhat shagg)' appearance. 



The twigs at first are greenish and covered with down. 



THE OAIC TREE TYPE OF ELM 



In this type is seen all the sturdy dignity of the oak, which it greatly 

 resembles. The tree is not, however, of frequent occurrence. 



later they are smooth reddish-brown. Older branches 

 have ashy, gray bark. The symmetrical development of 

 the elm top is due to the regularity with which the 

 branches divide and subdivide by forking. The twigs 

 of the American elm are readily recognized from those of 

 the slippery elm by their lack of the mucilaginous inner 



