THE ELM, PLANER AND HACKBERRY 155 



100 existing species and is common in the Indo-Malayan region, in 

 the islands of Oceanica, in Africa, and in tropical and sub-tropical 

 America southward to the northern Argentine. 



The North American forms to which alone our attention will 

 be confined number about 9, although the leaves of these trees 

 differ so much in size, texture and character of the marginal teeth ; 

 and the berries vary so much in color and size, that a number of 

 varieties have been described, and there is some uncertainty as to 

 just how many species are represented. 



The most widespread of our American forms is the hackberry 

 or sugarberry, Celtis occidentalis , sometimes called the nettle tree 

 from the resemblance of its leaves to those of the nettle. It 

 varies in size according to its environment from a large tree 130 

 feet tall and with a trunk 3 feet in diameter, and free of branches 

 for 70 or 80 feet above the ground, to a small tree or shrub toward 

 its western limit of range. It is found from the St. Lawrence River 

 near Montreal and Massachusetts Bay to Nebraska, Idaho and 

 eastern Washington and Oregon to Puget Sound. Southward 

 it extends down the Florida peninsula to Biscayne Bay and Cape 

 Romano, and to eastern Texas. 



Its cherry-like fruits have a sweet thin dry pulp covering the 

 stone, and are greedily eaten by birds, which thus disseminate the 

 seeds far and wide. Flood waters also occasionally serve the same 

 purpose. The wood is rather heavy and brittle, and of sHght com- 

 mercial importance. It is more or less lumbered in the east where 

 the trees reach a large size, and is sawed into second class timber. 

 It makes excellent fuel, and poles when these are peeled, and is 

 highly recommended by the Forest Service for planting in the semi- 

 arid regions of our west. Although it naturally grows more slowly 

 under conditions of adversity it has great hardiness and will live 

 on almost sterile soils and produce seed where almost any other 

 tree would die, although it cannot, on the other hand endure 

 swampy soils. It is an excellent shade tree and is widely planted 

 in our western cities, and also for wind breaks in the prairie states. 

 Its value is naturally much enhanced in those regions where trees 

 are scarce. 



