CELTIS 327 



base. The nettle-trees have no beauty of flower, these being small and 

 greenish ; the flowers are unisexual, but both sexes occur on the same 

 tree, the male or pollen-bearing ones a few together in a cluster near the 

 base of the new growths ; the seed-bearing or female flowers solitary, or 

 two or three together in the axils of the young leaves. Fruit a drupe, 

 solitary on a slender stalk, one-seeded. The fruit affords the best dis- 

 tinction between the nettle-trees and the elms, the latter having dry, 

 winged fruits. 



As garden trees the species of Celtis make elegant and shapely 

 specimens, yet of no particular merit or beauty, except that the leaves of 

 several of them turn bright yellow in autumn. In warmer countries the 

 timber is valuable, especially that of C. australis. The fruit of this 

 species is sweet, and is said to have been the lotus of the ancients that 

 delicious fruit which constituted the food of the Lotophagi, and made 

 those who ate it forget their own country (Treasury of Botany ^ i., p. 245). 

 Other species have fruits edible in their native countries. 



The nettle-trees like a good loamy soil and a well-drained position. 

 They are best propagated by seeds, but when these are not obtainable 

 grafting on stocks of C. occidentalis must be resorted to. Seeds of this 

 species, if they do not ripen here, are always obtainable from American 

 seedsmen. 



There is little to distinguish the different cultivated species in a 

 general way, except the leaves. Of those here dealt with, C. glabrata and 

 C. Davidiana are distinct in having no down on the leaves ; C. missis- 

 sippiensis is the only one with uniformly or nearly uniformly entire 

 leaves ; and C. australis has lanceolate, very downy leaves. 



C. AUSTRALIS, Linnceus* 



A tree up to 50 or 70 ft. high, with a grey, smooth, beech-like trunk, 

 sometimes 10 ft. in girth ; young shoots hairy. Leaves lanceolate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, wedge-shaped at the base, rounded on vigorous shoots, the apex 

 long, tapering, often tail-like, coarsely toothed ; 2 to 5 ins. long, f to \\ ins. 

 wide ; upper side covered with short, stiff hairs which partially fall away, 

 leaving bases which roughen the surface ; covered beneath with soft down ; 

 stalk downy, \ to \ in. long. Fruit globose, \ to \ in. long, reddish then 

 brown, on a very slender stalk about i in. long. 



Native of S. Europe and the Orient ; cultivated in England since the 

 sixteenth century by Gerard and others, but never common. I have raised 

 it several times from seed obtained from various places in S. Europe ; but 

 although it makes coarse growths 4 or 5 ft. long during summer, these are 

 cut back almost to the base by moderately severe frost. As this is repeated 

 every winter, the base becomes stunted and diseased, and the trees rarely 

 survive more than a few years. The large trees mentioned by Loudon 

 in 1838 as being at Kew and elsewhere were probably some other species. 

 What it lacks here, no doubt, is the ripening influences on the wood of 

 its native sun'shine. In the south of Europe it is believed to attain the age 

 of one thousand years, and its timber is tough and valuable. In the suburbs 

 of Italian and Dalmatian cities I have seen it as a pleasing small street 

 tree, with neat, rounded heads and smooth, handsome trunks. The leaves of 

 young seedling trees are often blotched quite conspicuously with yellow. 



