1856 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



abruptly narrowed at the apex into a serrated point ; upper surface dark green, smooth 

 or scabrous to the touch, with scattered stiff short hairs arising from minute tubercles ; 

 lower surface pale, covered with a soft dense pubescence, conspicuous on the midrib 

 and nerves, and occasionally forming minute axil-tufts at their junctions; 1 nerves 

 sixteen to twenty pairs, running straight and parallel to the margin, only one or 

 two being forked ; margin coarsely biserrate with sharp incurved points, ciliate ; 

 petiole J in. long, densely pubescent. 



Flowers, about twenty in a cluster, on long slender pedicels (about ^ to in. in 

 length) ; calyx broadly campanulate, oblique, with six to eight short pinkish lobes ; 

 stamens six, seven or eight, exserted, with white filaments and red anthers ; ovary 

 green, with ciliated margins, and white stigmas. Samarae, on long slender stalks, 

 ovate or elliptic, f to \ in. long, with prominent reticulations, glabrous on the 

 surface, densely ciliate on the margin with long white hairs ; with a deep notch at 

 the apex, closed by the incurved stigmas. Seed towards the base of the samara, 

 with its apex close to the base of the notch. 



This tree, which never develops corky ridges on the branchlets, usually produces 

 short pendulous epicormic shoots on the stem. It is very variable in habit, as is 

 well seen in the trees at Hargham in Norfolk. In America, when growing in the 

 forest, the stem is usually undivided for a great height, and surmounted by a compact 

 crown. When growing in the open the tree shows well-marked differences in habit, 

 which are described by Dame and Brooks, 2 as follows : 



" 1. In the vase-shaped tree, 3 usually regarded as the type, the trunk separates 

 into several large branches, which rise, slowly diverging 40 to 50 ft., and then sweep 

 outward in wide arches, the smaller branches and spray becoming pendent. 



2. In the umbrella form, the trunk remains entire nearly to the top of the tree, 

 when the branches spread out abruptly, forming a broad shallow arch, fringed with 

 long drooping branchlets. 



3. The slender trunk of the plume elm 4 rises, usually undivided, a considerable 

 height, begins to curve midway, and is capped with a one-sided tuft of branches 

 and delicate elongated branchlets. 



4. The drooping elm 6 differs from the type in the height of the arch, and 

 greater droop of the branches, which sometimes sweep the ground. 



5. In the oak form the limbs are more or less tortuous, and less arching, form- 

 ing a wide-spreading rounded head." 



Only a few horticultural varieties are known : 

 1. Van pendula, Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 320 (1789). 



Branches wide-spreading and arching downwards, with pendulous branchlets. 

 This is said by Aiton to have been cultivated by Mr. James Gordon in 1752. 



1 Loudon says that U. americana is readily distinguished by the peculiar membrane in the axils of the veins. This 

 membrane, uniting the base of the nerve with the midrib, is usually present only on the nerves of the outer half of the leaf. 

 * Trees of New England, 95 (1 902). 



3 Figured by Sargent, in Garden and Forest, iii. 287 (1890). 



4 A tree of this kind, called the " feathered " form by Sargent, growing at Sandwich, New Hampshire, is figured in 

 Garden and Forest, iii. 467 (1 890). 



6 The Clark elm at Lexington, with pendulous branches, which sweep the ground, is figured in Garden and Forest, iii. 

 443 C89o). 



