CHAP CI. 



f/LlMAY'EA:. ULMVS. 



1397 



t fj. U. KFFu'sA WUld. The spread ing-6/««r^frf E!ni. 



Iikntijication. Willd. Arb., 393. ; Sp. PI., 1. p. 1325. ; Spreng. Syst.Yeg., 1. p. 930. ; Roera et Schult. 



SystVeg., 6. p. 300. ; Rees's Cyclo., No. 6. ; Fl. Franc, 3. p. 316. ; Duby et Dec. Bot.Gall., I. p. 4Si2. 

 Synow/ines. —. . 



Did, No. 



Buxb. Hal., 

 Engravings. 



last Volume. 



Sjiec. Char., Sfc. Leaves mostly resembling those of the U. montana, but 

 quite smooth on the upper side ; unequal at the base, doubly serrated. 

 Flowers on drooping stalks. Stamens in a flower 6—8. Samara elliptic, 

 deeply cloven, strongly fringed with coarse dense hairs. {Smith in liees'x 

 Ci/cL, and in Eiig. Fl.) A native of Europe, chiefly in the south of France, 

 and in the Caucasus ; flowering in April and May. When it was intro- 

 duced is uncertain. 



Description, Sfc. This species is very distinct, even when the tree is bare 

 of leaves, as will be seen by comparing the winter tree of it, in our last Volume, 

 with that of U. montana major depicted at the same season. In spring and 

 summer, it is equally marked by the long droop- 

 ing peduncles of its flowers, and its hairy sa- 

 maras. It expands its leaves, according to M. 

 De Foucault, at least three weeks sooner than 

 any other kind of elm, and a month sooner 

 than some of the varieties. Its leaves are 

 large, and of a beautiful light shining green. 

 The trunk resembles that of U. montana more 

 than that of U. campestris ; forming numerous 

 branches, and a spreading head. The buds are 

 long, sharply pointed, and greenish ; while in 

 the U. campestris they are short, obtuse, and 

 covered with greyish hairs. {Annates Fvres- 

 tieres for 18 1 1 .) It is a native of Russia, where 

 it becomes a large tree ; and has a much wider 

 geographical range than, U. campestris, being, it would appear, one of the 

 hardiest of European elms ; and it has been found in the forests near Soissons, 

 and in some other parts of France. The first botanist who mentioned this 

 tree was Pallas ; and, about the same time, it was described, at length, by M. 

 Fouo'eroux de Bondaro)', in the Memoires de V Acadanie des Sciences for 1784. 

 Pallas states that the wood is very hard and durable, and that it is used in 

 Russia for ail the purposes that the common elm is employed for in Europe. 

 Bondaroy says that this sort of elm is very common by the road side, between 

 Villars Cotterets and Paris ; and also between that city and Cressy. It 

 tomes into leaf 13 or 20 days before the common elm, and it grows much 

 faster. The head is more spreading than that of the common elm ; and its 

 bark, instead of being furrowed, is smooth. On the whole, he says, the trees 

 are so difterent in their general appearance, that they may be readily distin- 

 guished from each other, even without their leaves. The colour of the young 

 wood, the buds, and the size, colour, and serrature of the leaves, are re- 

 markably like those of the Huntingdon elm; from which circumstance this 

 species is probably more nearly allied to U. montana than to U. campestris. 

 As a tree of ornament, it is well worth cultivating for the beauty of its 

 leaves, for the distinct character of its spray in winter, and, indeed, for its 

 general appearance at all seasons. In British nurseries, it is propagated by 

 grafting on U. montana. There are handsome young trees of it in the 

 London Horticultural Society's Garden ; and there is a tree of it at White 

 Kni"hts, in front of the mansion, which is 63 ft. high, the diameter of the 

 trunk 22 in., and of the head 70 ft. This tree, we are informed by the gar- 

 dener, Mr. Ward, flowers, but does not ripen seeds, on which account it 

 would appear to be allied to U. campestris ; but, though its roots run very 

 near the surface, it never throws up a single sucker, and hence it would seem 

 to belong rather to U. montana. There are plants at Messrs. Loddiges's. 



I \ 4. 



1242 



