ffimut.] LXXII. ULMACE^. 401 



Besides Ulmut there are but very few genera, either tropical or from 

 the wanner parts of the northern hemisphere. 



I. ULMUS. ELM. 



Trees, with alternate, deciduous leaves, and small flowers in clusters, 

 appearing before the leaves on the preceding year's wood. Perianth 

 campanulate, with 4 to 6 short lobes or teeth, and as many stamens. 

 Ovary flat, with 2 short, diverging styles, and divided into 2 cells, each 

 with a single pendulous ovule. Fruit flat, thin, and leaf-like, slightly 

 thickened in the centre, where it contains 1 pendulous seed. 



A small genus, spread over the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere. 



Fruit slightly notched at the top, the seed-bearing cavity placed 



considerably below the notch 1. U. montana. 



Fruit deeply notched, the notch almost reaching the seed-bearing 



cavity . 2. 17". campestris. 



1. U. mpntana, Sm. (fig. 908). Scotch, or Wych E.A tree of con- 

 siderable size and picturesque form ; the large branches spreading from 

 near the base unless when drawn up in its youth. Leaves nearly sessile, 

 broadly ovate, bordered with double teeth, and very unequal or oblique 

 at the base, usually rough on the upper side and downy underneath. 

 Flowers reddish, in dense clusters, surrounded by brownish bracts, 

 which soon fall off ; the pedicels scarcely as long as the perianth. 

 Fruits green and leaf -like, broadly ovate or orbicular, 6 to 9 lines long, 

 with a small notch at the top ; the seed suspended in a small cavity 

 near the centre of the fruit. 



Chiefly in hilly districts, in northern and western Europe and Asia. 

 In Britain, it is the common wild Mm of Scotland, Ireland, and northern 

 and western England; it is rare in south-eastern England, where a 

 variety of U. campestris is often called wych Elm. Fl. early spring, before 

 the leaves. 



2. U. campestris, Sm. (fig. 909). Common E. Very near U. mon- 

 tana, and many botanists consider the two races as forming but one 

 species. The U. campestris appears, however to be generally, if not 

 constantly, distinguished by the fruit, which is deeply notched, the top 

 of the seed-bearing cavity almost reaching the notch. It is usually 

 also a taller and straighter-growing tree, attaining in rich soils above a 

 hundred feet ; the young branches are more slender, and the leaves 

 usually smaller and less coarse; but all these characters are very 

 variable. 



Widely spread over central, southern, and eastern Europe, and western 

 Asia, and the most generally planted species. In Britain, it is the most 

 frequent one in fields and hedge-rows. It is nowhere indigenous in 

 Britain, where it rarely ripens seed, but increases rapidly by root 

 suckers. FL early spring, before the leaves. It varies with the leaves 

 nearly smooth and glabrous, and the bark becomes corky ( U. suberosa, 

 Ehrh.), even on the young branches, more frequently than in U. montana; 

 but the supposed species established on these characters do not come 

 true from seed. 



2o 



