414 



The Journal of Heredity 



CONNECTICUT\S FAMOUS KLM AT WETIIERSFIELD 



'"The Great Elm" has always been elaimed by people in Connecticut to be the largest in the 

 United States, and it seems quite likely that this claim is well founded. The American 

 Genetic Association has not been able to get authentic record of any larger living specimen. 

 The smallest diameter of the trunk (4 feet from ground) is 28 feet, while the basal girth, 

 swelled by buttresses, is 55 feet 6 inches. Its height is approximately 100 feet. Estimated 

 to be 250 years old, the tree seems to be in full vigor at the present time, and as the residents 

 of the town have enough civic pride to care for it, the tree should live for several genera- 

 tions more. Photograph contributed by F. W. Tuttle, Hartford, Conn. (Pig. 10.) 



j^round. In his book, a i)icluro of the 

 tree is given, and a great limb comes 

 off low down, which evidently was 

 included in the above measurement. 

 The tree aj^jjears to be about 50 feet in 

 girth at the base below where the limb 

 comes off. Another enormous tree, 

 49 feet in girth, stands in the grounds of 

 the mosque of Tajrish, a village in the 

 Elburz mountains, north of Teheran 

 in Persia." 



Although a number of other tine 

 sycamores were sent to this association, 

 none of them could compete with the 

 Indiana spc-eimen. and it seems ex- 

 tremeh- ])n)bable that this is the largest 

 tree in the eastern United States at 

 the ])resent time. When one gets to 

 the Pacific Coast, he enters the region 

 of the Sequoias, who.se giant bulk puts 

 ihem in a cla.ss by them.selves. Indeed, 

 specimens of the Big Tree (Sequoia 



