22 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



catarrhal and nephritic diseases. It may be prepared by adding a drachm 

 of the pith to a pint of boiling water. Owing to its volatile oil and tonic 

 acid, the bark of the Sassafras root is an aromatic stimulant and as- 

 tringent. It is used almost exclusively as an adjuvant to other more 

 efficient medicines, the flavor of which it improves, while it renders them 

 more cordial to the stomach. The volatile oil may be used as an aro- 

 matic. In overdose it is capable of producing marked narcotic poison- 



ing.* 



ORDER ULMACE^3:f ELM FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, alternate; stipules caducous. Mowers perfect or polygamous by 

 abortion, apetalous, in loose clusters, not catkins; calyx somewhat bell-shaped, free 

 from the ovary; stamens springing from the calyx, usually as many as its lobes and 

 opposite them; filaments straight, ovary 1-2-celled with a single suspended ovule in 

 each cell; styles or stigmas two. Fruit, a samara or drupe with suspended seed; no 

 albumen. 



Represented by trees, rarely shrubs. 



GENUS ULMUS, L. 



Leaves short petioled usually rather rough, markedly straight-veined, unequally or 

 obliquely heart-shaped or abrupt at the base, stipules small, caducous. Flowers ap- 

 pearing before the leaves in our species, purplish or yellowish, apetalous, polyga- 

 mous, in lateral clusters or racemes; calyx 4-9-cleft; stamens 4-9, with long, slender 

 filaments; ovary 2-celled, or rarely 1-celled, compressed; styles 2, short and diverg- 

 ing. Fruit a samara with a broad, membraneous margin, 1-celled by obliteration, 

 and 1-seeded; seed with no albumen, large cotyledons and straight embryo. 



( minus, is the ancient Latin name of the Elm.) 



33. ULMUS AMERICANA, L. 



WHITE ELM, WATER ELM, AMERICAN ELM. 



Ger., Weisse Ulme, Ruster ; Fr., Orme parasol ; Sp., Olmo bianco. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves ovate-oblong, oval or obovate, sharply serrate 

 (often doubly so), unequal at the base and rather abruptly narrowing at the apex to 

 a tapering point; smooth above and soft-pubescent or glabrous beneath and 2-4 

 inches in length; branchlets glabrous; branches without corky ridges. Flowers (April) 

 in umbellate clusters with slender pedicels, jointed above the middle; calyx-lobes 

 7-9, roundish; stamens 7-9, exserted; anthers purple. Fruit (May and June) about 

 i inch long, oval or ovate, smooth, but with densely ciliate margin, and the incurved 

 sharp points at the apex meeting and closing the notch. 



A magnificent tree of very characteristic and beautiful form. It tow- 

 ers sometimes to the height of 100 ft. (30 m.) or more, with a trunk 6 or 

 7 ft. (2 m. ) in diameter, and with a magnificent wide-spreading top and 

 long, pendulous branches. In graceful beauty and symmetry of form this 

 tree is certainly not surpassed by any tree in America, and Micheaux, 

 who studied the trees of this country, now nearly a century ago, pro- 

 nounced it " the most magnificent vegetable of the temperate zone/' 

 The bark of the White Elm is of a light-gray color and rough, with 

 longitudinal and not very closely adherent ridges. 



*Z7. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., p. 1339. 



t Ranked by som authors as a sub order of the order Urticacem. 



