Celtis 933 



to the first limb, which grew not more than 25 feet from the extreme summit of 

 the tree." 



Though I was not fortunate enough to find any such trees standing, when I 

 visited the remains of this forest in 1904, yet I saw enough to make me wish that an 

 area of this unique forest could be preserved to show what the virgin forests of the 

 Wabash valley were once like ; for there is no other part of the temperate world 

 where so many species of hardwood trees grow to such a size as they formerly did 

 here. ^ 



This species appears to have been introduced about the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century; several trees, 10 to 15 feet in height, being mentioned by Loudon. 



At Kew it appears to be straighter and more vigorous in growth than 

 C. occidentalis ; and all the specimens have a few branches mainly in the upper and 

 inner parts of the tree, which bear very large leaves. One of the trees, growing on 

 the walk behind the Aroid House, is 38 feet high by 3J feet in girth. 



(H. J. E.) 



CELTIS MISSISSIPPIENSIS 



Celtis mississippiensis, Bosc, Diet. Agric. x. 41 (18 10); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 71, t. 318 



(1895), and Trees N. Amer. 300 (1905). 

 Celtis Icevigata, Willdenow, Berlin Baumz. 81 (181 1); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1420 (1838). 

 Celtis occidentalis, Linnaeus, var. integrifolia, Nuttall, Gen. i. 202 (1818). 

 Celtis occidentalis, Sargent, Forest Trees N. Amer., lotA Census U.S. ix. 125 (1884) (in part); and 



Garden and Forest, iii. 39 (in part), ff. 9, 10, 11 (1890). 



A tree, attaining in America, 80 feet high and 9 feet in girth. Bark bluish- 

 green, and covered with prominent excrescences. Young branchlets glabrous. 

 Leaves (Plate 267, Fig. 9), up to 3 inches long and \\ inch wide, ovate-lanceolate or 

 lanceolate, unequal and rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, long-acuminate at 

 the apex ; margin usually entire, occasionally irregularly serrate towards the apex ; 

 light green and glabrous, except for slight axil tufts at the base beneath ; petiole, 

 about \ inch, glabrous. Fruiting-pedicels, about inch. Drupes, ovoid, \ to \ inch, 

 bright orange red, with thin dry flesh and a smooth light brown stone. 



This species is distributed from southern Indiana and Illinois, through 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama to Florida, and through Missouri, Arkansas, and 

 Texas to Nuevo Leon. It is also a native of the Bermudas. It is very abundant 

 and of its largest size in the basin of the lower Ohio River, a tree measured by 

 Schneck in Richland County, Illinois, being 95 feet high and 5^ feet in girth. Here 

 it is often associated with C. crassifolia, from which it may be distinguished ' by its 

 usually smaller size, shorter trunk, entire leaves, and bright orange-red fruit. It is 

 the most common species in Kentucky and Tennessee ; but is rare in the Gulf 

 States. Though apparently found in Texas and Nuevo Leon, it is replaced to the 



1 Elwes noticed that the wrinkled bark of this species easily distinguished it in the forest from C. crassifolia. 



