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Jft C State College 



148 TREE ANCESTORS 



range being probably clue to their southward spread caused by the 

 less genial conditions that prevailed during the glacial period in 

 the northern lands, for although the genus may have been originally 

 of tropical ancestry that far off event was long antecedent to Pleisto- 

 cene times. 



The common European elm, Ulmiis campestris, is a doubtful 

 native of England, and is said to have been introduced by the 

 Romans. This is rendered probable by the fact that it rarely 

 perfects its seeds there. Before the employment of cast iron its 

 wood was in much demand for water pipes, since it is remarkably 

 durable under constant conditions of either wetness or dryness, 

 although decaying readily upon exposure to weather. Its inner 

 bark was formerly much used for mats and ropes, and also in 

 medicine, although it contains much less mucilage than our familiar 

 slippery elm. 



Few trees are more imposing or more graceful when planted in 

 avenues. Francis I is said to have inaugurated this practise 

 in France, and it subsequently became a sort of English tradi- 

 tion, especially in New England. The Long Walk at Windsor is 

 bordered by elms, and magnificent examples are to be found in all 

 the older towns of New England. The Concord Elm is one of the 

 New England elms celebrated in colonial history, and there was a 

 fine old elm on Boston Common measuring 22 feet in circumference 

 which was destroyed by a storm in 1876. 



The Scotch or Wych elm, Ulmus montana, is indigenous in Brit- 

 ain, and is the common elm in Scotland. It is a much smaller 

 as well as a hardier tree than Ulmus campestris, and carries the 

 northern limit of the elms northward to latitude 67° in Europe, 

 or 4 degrees beyond the range of the common European elm. Its 

 twigs were formerly much used for divining purposes. The highly 

 ornamental weeping elm is a horticultural variety of this species. 



We have 6 native elms in North America, the white or American 

 elm, Ulmus americana, being the largest, and fully the equal of 

 the European elm in both size and gracefulness, and like it, much 

 planted as a shade tree in our northern States, and more rarely in 

 western and northern Europe. It grows naturally from southern 



