Hackberries, Nettle Tree 279 



commercial value has been lately much overrated. Its main use is 

 among flowering shrubs, for its flowers and large leaves. 



C. bignonioides \Yalt. (182), its less desirable congener, is of more 

 straggling habit, otherwise difficult to distinguish, and is very likely 

 substituted in nurseries, unintentionally. 



Of slightly superior value are the Japanese and Chinese species — • 

 C. ovata Don. (183) {Kanipferi), with smaller, more pleasing foliage, 

 the small flowers with dull purple dots and the fruit in more delicate 

 pods; and C. Bungei C. A. May (184), a dwarf, with large glossy foliage, 

 sometimes confounded with a nurseryman's round-headed, grafted form 

 of bignonioides. 



HACKBERRIES, NETTLE TREE 



Celtis. Some fifty or sixty species in various parts of the world, trees 

 or shrubs, have a secondary ornamental value, inferior to that of the elms 

 which they much resemble, although their more compact crown, their 

 freedom from insect and fungus diseases, their thriftiness in almost any 

 soil, are advantages. 



C. occidentalis Linn. (185), Hackberry or Nettle Tree, a medium 

 size to large tree, native and of wide distribution from north to south 

 and west, is hardy in the Canadian Northwest. It is elm-like, but with 

 smaller, darker foliage, more compact and spreading habit, and with a 

 very dense foliage. It grows in most soils unless excessively dry. It 

 deserves more attention for roadside planting and as a shade tree than 

 it has so far received. Its freedom from diseases makes it especially 

 desirable. 



C. Bimgeana Blume (186) (erroneously called Sinensis, which is 

 another species, not hardy), is a native of China, but, in protected 

 positions, is quite hardy in the North. Its dark green foliage, glossy 

 on both sides, is said to make an excellent shade tree. 



Cercidiphylliun. C.Japonicum S. & Z. (187), from Japan, is one of the 

 best of the recent introductions, being a small bushy tree (although in 

 its native habitat growing to timber size), of pyramidal, almost fastigiate 

 form, and handsome, roundish foliage of purplish tinge when unfold- 

 ing, later becoming bright green, and turning yellow and scarlet in the 

 fall. Its foliage develops on small spurs or short shoots all along the 

 stems and branches, making it specially leafy when young and the foli- 



