PLANER TREE; WATER ELM (Planera aquatica, Gmelin). 

 80 to 40 feet. Little tree with crooked branches forming a 

 round, low dome above the short trunk. Bark scaly, thin, 

 gray, shedding in flakes, showing the red lining. Wood brown, 

 close-grained, soft, light, of no use. Leaves about 2 inches 

 long, alternate, 2-ranked, ovate, often sickle-shaped, finely 

 scalloped, pointed, oblique at base, dull green, paler beneath, 

 with yellow midrib and veins. Flowers like those of hack- 

 berry, but smaller. February and March. Fruit a 1-seeded 

 drupe in dry, thin, horny pericarp; seed black. April. Dist.: 

 Swamp land, North Carolina to Florida; west to Missouri 

 and Texas. 



Illustration from "Hough's Handbook of Trees" 



104 



