LORANTHACEAE 255 



Obs. This remarkable parasite is becoming so rare amongst us, 

 that it may be regarded as one (or soon to be one) of the extinct 

 plants of Chester County. It is, however, rather abundant in New 

 Jersey, and frequent, also, in the adjoining States of Delaware 

 and Maryland. Doctor DARWIN thus refers to the Mistletoe, in his 

 imaginative Poem: 



" Oh ! stay, bright habitant of air, alight, 



Celestial VISCA, from thy angel-flight! 



Scorning the sordid soil, aloft she springs, 



Shakes her white plume, and claps her golden wings; 



High o'er the fields of boundless ether roves, 



And seeks amid the clouds her soaring loves!" 



ORDER LXXXV. ULMA^CEAE. 



Trees, or shrubs; leaves alternate, simple, serrate, roughish, with deciduous stipules; 

 flowers perfect, or polygamous ; calyx campanulate, persistent, 4- to 8-cleft, the 

 lobes imbricated in the bud ; stamens usually as many as the calyx-lobes, and 

 opposite them; ovary 1- or 2-celled, with a single suspended ovule in each cell; 

 styles or stigmas 2; fruit 1-celled, 1-seeded, indehiscent, either a samara, or ft 

 drupe; albumen none, br scanty. 



SUBORDER I. UL'MEAE. 



Flowers perfect, fasciculate; fruit a samara; albumen none; embryo straight. 



361. UI/MUS, L. 



[The ancient name, in the Latin Classics.] 



Calyx about 8-cleft, membranaceous. Ovary compressed, ovate, 

 2-celled; styles 2, diverging, stigmatic along the inner edge. Samara 

 with a broad membranaceous margin all round, by abortion 1-celled, 

 1-seeded. Flowers in lateral fascicles, preceding the leaves, pur- 

 plish brown. 



1. IT. Americana, L. Leaves oblong-ovate, smoothish above ; 

 flowers conspicuously pedicellate; samara oval, densely villous- 

 ciliate on the margin. 



AMERICAN ULMUS. White Elm. Weeping Elm. 



Stem 60 to 80 feet high ; branches long and spreading, often rather drooping. 

 Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, acuminate, unequal at base, serratures uncinately 

 acuminate; petioles % to % an inch in length, smoothish ; stipules smooth. Styles 

 pubescent, nearly white. Samara bifid at apex, with the segments incurved so ai 

 to leave an apparent foramen through the margin. 

 Hob. Low grounds; along streams: not very common. Fl. April. Fr. June. 



Obs. This is a noble shade tree, for streets and avenues, and is 

 much used for that purpose, in New England; but is too much 

 neglected in Pennsylvania. 



2. U. fwlva, MX. Leaves obovate-oblong, very scabrous above; 

 flowers subsessile; samara orbicular, naked on the margin. 

 TAWNY ULMUS. Slippery Elm. Red Elm. 



Stem 30 to 50 feet high ; young branches virgate. Buds clothed with a fulvous 

 tomentum. Leaves 4 to 6 or 8 inches long, conspicuously acuminate, subcordate 

 at base ; petioles about % of an inch long, pubescent ; stipules hairy. Calyx often 

 7-cleft, clothed and ciliate with a reddish-tawny pubescence. Styles glandular- 

 pubescent, purple, ft imam cleft at apex, with the segments so incurved and over- 

 lapped as to give the margin the appearance of being entire. 

 Halt. Rich, low grounds; fence-rows, &c. : frequent Fl. April. Fr. June. 



