58 



SILVA OF NOB Til AMERICA. 



ULMACEJE. 



the base. The ovary is coated with pale hairs^ and crowned with two short slightly exserted stigmas. 

 The fruit ripens in September^ and is oblong, gradually and often irregularly narrowed from the middle 

 to the two ends, short-stalked, deeply notched at the apex, one third to nearly one half of an inch long, 

 and covered with soft white hairs, which are most developed on the slightly thickened margin of the 

 broad obscurely veined wing. The seed is ovate-oblique, pointed, and covered with a dark chestnut- 

 brown coat.^ 



Ulmus crass if olia is distributed from the valley of the Sunflower River in Mississippi through 

 southern Arkansas and Texas to Nuevo Leon,^ ranging in western Texas from the coast to the valley of 

 the Pecos River.^ 



Texas, where it is the common Elm-tree^, and where it attains its largest size on the rich bottom-lands of 

 the Guadaloupe and Trinity Rivers^ it grows near streams in deep alluvial soil and on the dry limestone 

 hills which rise from them, usually with Live Oaks and Nettle-trees. 



crassifolia is heavy, hard, not strong, brittle, close-grained, with obscure 



In Arkansas the Cedar Elm grows usually on river cliffs and low hillsides,^ and in 



light brown tinged with 



The wood of Ulmus crasi 

 medullary rays and bands of ducts marking the layers of annual growth 

 red, with thick lighter colored sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7245, a 

 cubic foot weighing 45.15 pounds. In central Texas it is used in considerable quantities in the manu- 

 facture of the hubs of wagon-wheels and saddle-trees, for furniture, and largely in fencing ; grown in 

 the dry climate of the Rio Grande basin, the Cedar Elm is less valuable as a timber-tree, and produces 

 lumber of an inferior quality, and poor fuel. 



Ulmus i 

 rn Arka 



if olia 



discovered by Thomas NuttalP in 1819 



the Red River 



south 



isas. As it grows on the bottom-lands of the rivers of central Texas, the Cedar Elm, with 

 broad head of long pendulous branches covered with dark ffreen lustrous leaves, is one of the most 



beautiful and graceful trees of North Amer 



It 



IS 



nally^ planted 



as a 



shade 



th 



of cities and towns in Te 



but, except in Texas, is rarely seen in cultivation 



The seeds of Ulmus crassifolia do not apparently germinate 



until 



362 



NaL Mus 



^ F- L. Harvey, Am, Jour, Forestry^ i. 451. 

 fi See ii. 34. 



® In Texas the beauty oit Ulmus crassifolia is often injured by 

 the Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides^ Linnaeus), which frequently 



ultimately weakens, and finally 



the tree. 



^ Reverehon, Garden and Forest, vi. 524 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Plate CCCXV. Ulmus crassifolla.. 



1. A flowering branch, natural size 



2. Diagram of a flower. 



3. A flower, enlarged. 



4. A stamen, enlarged. 



5. A pistil, enlarged. 



6. An ovule, much magnified. 



7. A fruiting branch, natural size. 



8. A fruit, enlarged- 



9. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 



10. Vertical section of a seed, enlarged. 



11. An embryo, enlarged. 



12. A summer branch, natural size. 



13. A winter branch, natural size. 



