PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 71 



48. (177.) Ulmns anerimna. White Elm; "Eed Elm." 



A very common tree, most abundant in rich bottoms, where it attains 

 a large size. Trees fully equaling the finest New England specimens are 

 not uncommon, many being 5 feet in diameter and 120 feet or more in 

 height. A very remarkable specimen was seen in the bottoms below 

 Mount Carmel. It had grown in a thick wood, but the surrounding trees 

 having been cleared away, was thus exposed to full view. The truuk, 

 3^ feet in diameter, extended straight upward like a shaft or column 

 for about 40 feet, and then gradually enlarged, and subdivided, the sub- 

 divisions coalescing in places, but finally taking the character of distinct 

 branches, of which about 13 could be counted; these main upright 

 branches gradually diverged, now and then dividing, to near the top, 

 which was gracefully inclined outwards all round, and with an ex- 

 tremely regular outline. This bouquet-shaped top had an ambitus of 

 about 50 feet, while its summit was elevated about 120 feet above the 

 ground. In the immediate vicinity of Mount Carmel are several very 

 beautiful elm trees of the dome-sliaped type, one having an ambitus of 

 about 90 feet, the ends of the branches nearly touching the ground, and 

 the total height about 70 or 75 feet. Another one expands 01 feet, 

 though the total height of the tree is scarcely 00 feet, and the diameter 

 of its truuk only a little over 3 feet. It is needless to remark that both 

 these trees are completely isolated. The largest specimen which I have 

 measured was 16 feet in circumference (above the spurs), the trunk un- 

 divided for about 50 feet, and the total height more than 120 feet. The 

 ambitus of this tree was 105 feet, but another, also a very large tree, 

 expanded 111 feet. 



A conspicuous peculiarity of this tree, when growing in wet situa- 

 tions, consists in the very prominent si)urs or buttresses thrown out 

 from the base. These thin walls extend sometimes many feet from the 

 body of the tree, some specimens with a trunk 3 feet or less in diameter 

 above the spurs being 12 to 15 feet in diameter at the ground. The 

 only other tree exhibiting this feature to a marked degree is the Red 

 Oak [Quercus rubra), in which, however, the spurs are thicker and do 

 not project so far as they do with the present species in extreme cases. 

 The White Elm is the tree to which the mistletoe {Phoradendron Jia- 

 vcscens) is most partial, fully 90 per cent, of the trees affected by this 

 parasite in the White Elver and Wabash bottoms being elms; in fact, 

 I have never seen it except on this tree and the Honey Locust {Gledit- 

 schia triacanthos). In the vicinity of Evansville, howe\er, only 40 miles 

 southeast from Mount Carmel, the case is said to be quite different, a(i- 

 cording to Professor John Collett, who gives a list of thirteen species of 

 trees ui)on which this parasite was found growing, the BlacJv Gum being, 

 first, the ''Ited Elm" {i. e., JJlmus americana) second, and the Honey 

 Locust fifth, in the order of numbers upon which it grows. (See Cox's- 

 Geologkal Survey of Indiana, 1875, p. 242.) 



