14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



THIRTY-rOtlRTH FAFEB. 



Water Elm. 



Vlancra aqnatica. — Gmel. 



The range of growth of water elm is from 

 the valley of the Cape Fear river, North 

 Carolina, to western Florida; westward 

 through the southern sections of Alabama and 

 Mississippi to the Trinity river in Texas; 

 north through western Louisiana 

 and Arkansas to the southern dis- 

 tricts of Missouri, western Tennes- 

 see, central Kentucky and the valley 

 of the Wabash river. 



In Alabama it is known as the 

 American planetree; in North Caro- 

 lina, South Carolina, Florida, Louis- 

 iana, Texas, Arkansas and Tennes- 

 see as the planer tree; as plene in 

 Louisiana; as sycamore in North 

 Carolina ; and most commonly as 

 water elm, this being the name ap- 

 T)lied to it in many localities. The 

 generic name, Flanera, is given to 

 the tree in memory of a German 

 botanist and physician of the eight- 

 eenth century. 



The planer tree or water elm 

 should not be confused with the 

 larger plane tree, often known as 

 buttonwood. The tree is confined 

 in its growth to wet banks along 

 rivers, or to the immediate vicinity 

 of lakes and ponds. It thrives par- 

 ticularly well in swamps covered 

 with water during a large part of 

 the year, and reaches its greatest 

 development and abundance in 

 southern Arkansas and western 

 Louisiana. Water ehn rarely at- 

 tains a height of more than seventy 

 feet ; the trunk is comparatively 

 short, and rarely exceeds thirty 

 inches in diameter. Its slim, spread- 

 ing branches form a low, broad 

 head, giving it a rather graceful 

 appearance. 



The leaves are two to two and a 

 half inches long, on short petioles; 

 dark green in color, resembling those 

 of the white elm ; they are paler on 

 the under side, with yellowish mid- 

 rib and veins ; serrate, sometimes 

 doubly. The branehlets are tinged 

 with brownish-red when young, be- 

 coming dark red during their first .jyi 

 winter, and eventually turning ashy 

 gray. 



The flowers of water elm appear simulta- 

 neously with the leaves, and the fruit ripens 

 in September. It is a rough, tough-skinned 

 nut, about a quarter of an inch through, but 

 quite different from the fruit of elm, which 

 is winged. 



The bark is perhaps a quarter of an inch 

 thick, separating into large scales, disclos- 

 ing the reddish inner bark in falling, as 



does that of buttuiiwood. The wood is light, 

 not strong, and soft. It is close-grained 

 and light brown, with thick, white sapwood 

 showing plainly the layers of annual growth. 

 In the earlier days of lumber production 

 in the South, water elm was not regarded as 

 a commercial wood of any 



piano men prefer the northern gray elm. 



The Hakdwood Eecord must confess that 

 it is not entirely certain that it has cor- 

 rectly analyzed the botany of this wood.. 

 Herewith is shown a specimen of forest 

 growth which was photographed by the edi- 

 mportance, but tor in Washington county, Mississippi, and 

 accompanying it is a print of the 

 foliage as it appears in May. 



•IfAL KOIiEST (JltOWTII WATKU KLM. WASHINGTON 

 COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. 



witli the growing scarcity of hardwoods it 

 is now coming into the market in a consider- 

 able aggregate quantity. The lumber is not 

 of as high a type as the gray elm of the 

 North, but compares favorably with northern 

 water elm. Its chief use is in the making 

 of medium and low grade furniture, and for 

 some portions of pianos manufacturers find 

 it valuable, although generally speaking the 



Forest Fires, 



Michigan has had another costly 

 lesson in mismanagement of forest 

 affairs. Dispatches from Escanaba 

 of May 19 state that an ocean of 

 flame has swept over the timber 

 regions of a large portion of the 

 northern peninsula of Michigan 

 and across the line into Wisconsin. 

 The counties suffering the greatest 

 damage are Menominee, Dickin- 

 son, Delta, Marquette and Alger. 

 It is said that a number of per- 

 sons are dead and more than a 

 hundred missing. Scores of fami- 

 lies are homeless and a dozen lum- 

 ber towns have been wiped out of 

 existence, or badly burned. 



A stretch of timber land over 

 two hundred and fifty miles in 

 length, running from Newberry in 

 Luce county on the east to Besse- 

 mer in Gogebic county on the 

 west, and north and south between 

 Lakes Superior and Michigan, has 

 been dotted with fires for the past 

 ten days. The flames spread over 

 into Wisconsin and swept as far 

 south as Peshtigo, covering a large 

 part of Marinette county. The 

 lumber towns reported partially or 

 entirely destroyed are Alfred, An- 

 toine. Birch, Cornell, Daggett, Fos- 

 ter, Hermansville, Loomis, Metro- 

 politan, Niagara, Northland, Pen- 

 toga, Powers, Quinnesec, Ealph, 

 Salva, Saunders, Spalding, Spring 

 Valley, Talbot and Woodland. All 

 the foregoing towns were located 

 in Michigan. The I. Stephenson 

 Company of Wells is reputed to be 

 a heavy loser by the fire. Beyond 

 the loss of life, sawmills, homes 

 and lumber the damage to the 

 forest must be stupendous. 



The range of this fire was so far- 

 reaching that it will be weeks before an 

 accurate estimate of the loss can be made. 

 It is sincerely to be hoped that the news- 

 paper accounts of the conflagration are over- 

 estimated, but certainly the calamity is 

 serious enough to awaken the legislature 

 of the state of Michigan to the need of 

 providing adequate means for a system of 

 fire rangers, and thus safeguard the remain- 

 ing standing timber of that state. 



