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wood. It is used for fixtures, backing for cuts, car finish, professional 
and scientific instruments, furniture, handles, and brushes. It has a pleas- 
ing, though not striking, effect when quarter-sawed, and its advantage for 
furniture lies in the fact that it becomes deep red when varnished without 
any stain. The wood is durable in the soil. 
Celtis occidentalis. Hackberry—tThis species, as well as another of 
the genus (Celtis mississippiensis), is found in this region. It can be 
identified by the leaves, which resemble those of the elm, by the sweet 
berry, which is largely seed, and by the wart-like excrescences on the bark. 
Its wood, like that of the elm, is very hard to split. The sap-wood is 
lemon-yellow, and is hard to season without its splitting. It has no espe- 
cial merit as lumber, but it is sometimes used for fence boards and is 
quite commonly made into railroad ties, which have to be treated, how- 
ever. It can be classed as a bottomland species in this region, growing 
on land subject to overflow. 
Ulmus americana. American Elm. White Elm—This is the com- 
monest of the elms in southern Illinois, although we also have the slip- 
pery elm, (Ulmus pubescens) and the winged elm (Ulmus alata). Ulmus 
serotina has been reported by Ridgway in the extreme northeast corner 
of Wayne county, but we have not yet found this species. The white 
elm is found in meadows where there is considerable seepage and in rich 
bottomland wood, where it reaches an immense size. One was meas- 
ured on the Spann tract, in Union county, which was 30 inches in diam- 
eter breast-high, and scaled 921 board feet. Its total height was 60 feet 
and its merchantable length 42 feet. Such trees are used in the manu- 
facture of rotary-cut veneer for baskets and coiled hoops; many of them 
go into railroad ties. 
Red or slippery elm has more pubescent leaves and fruit than white 
elm, a pinkish, more durable wood, and is used for the same purposes. 
The winged elm has smaller leaves than other species and the twigs 
have prominent ridges of cork to which it owes its name. 
Populus heterophylla. Swamp Cottonwood. Black Cottonwood. 
Swamp Poplar.—This tree reaches its best size in river swamps along with 
red gum, soft maple, cucumber and tulip, attaining diameters of 4 to 6 
feet, with very thick deeply ridged bark. According to Deam (721), of 
Indiana, the pith of the shoots of this species is orange, while in all of 
the other cottonwoods it is white. The wood is white, light, and tough, 
and fairly easy to work, undergoing indentation without splitting. It is 
a valuable box and crate material, especially for eggs. It is also used for 
wagon-box boards, veneer, excelsior, paper pulp, and as match stock. 
Cottonwood thrives best in full sunlight, and for this reason readily gains 
a footing in old corn fields along the Mississippi River and on sand-bars 
