496 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



submerged in water. U. Floridana (Chapman) is a variety. Rate 

 of growth in Nebraska : stem-circumference, 53 inches in 24 years 

 2 feet above ground [Furnas]. 



Ulmus camperstris. Linne.* 



The ordinary Elm, indigenous to Europe and temperate Asia, as 

 far east as Japan. Several marked varieties, such as the Cork- 

 Elm and Wych-Elm, exist, also a weeping variety. The elm in 

 attaining an age of several centuries, becomes finally of enormous 

 size. Sir Joseph Hooker records the height of a tree at 125 feet, 

 with a stem-circumference of 50 feet. Grew at St. Vincent's Grulf 

 in 30 years to a height of about 66 feet [B. B. Smith]. In Britain 

 it has been occasionally attacked by Scolytus destructor, and irre- 

 spective of this beetle, also by the Groat-moth, Cossus ligniperda, 

 both boring into the stem. Latreille already recommended, to catch 

 the larva? of these borers by surrounding the stem-base with a 

 mixture of clay and cow-dung. A coating of coal-tar to the affected 

 portions of the stem has lately been recommended. The wood is 

 tough, hard, fine-grained and remarkably durable, if constantly 

 under water. Next to yew it is the best of European woods, where 

 great elasticity is required, as for archery-bows. It is also used for 

 keels, blocks, wheels, piles, pumps, gun- and railway-carriages, 

 gunwales, mill-work, various tools and implements. Elm-piles of 

 the old London-Bridge were found to be in a soundcondition after 

 being in the ground for 800 years. The Wych-Elm (U. montana, 

 Withering) grows still further north than the Cork-Elm (U.sube- 

 rosa, Moench), in Norway to lat. 66 59'; even in lat. 59 45' Pro- 

 fessor Schuebeler found a tree still over 100 feet high, with a stem 

 4 feet in diameter. The wood of the Wych-Elm is preferred for 

 bending purposes [Eassie]. The bast is tough. The average 

 growth at Port Phillip proved 40 feet in 25 years, but in very 

 favorable situations considerably more. Here almost as long without 

 leaves as in colder climes. De Candolle estimated a particular 

 aged elm in France to be 335 years old. 



TJlmus crassifolia, Nuttall. 



The Evergreen Elm of Mexico, Arkansas and Texas, A tree 

 fully 90 feet high and 2 feet in stem-diameter. 



TJlmus fulva, Michaux. 



The Slippery or Bed Elm of Eastern North -America. Beaching 

 a height of about 60 feet. Splendid for street-planting. There is 

 a pendent-branched variety. Wood : red, tenacious, useful for 

 wagon-hubs and wheels [Vasey]. Begarded as the best North- 

 American wood for blocks of rigging, according to Simmonds. The 

 leaves seem available as food for the larvas of the silkmoth ; the 

 bark is employed in medicine. Bate of growth, little more than 

 half that of the White Elm [Furnas]. 



