1 862 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ULMUS FULVA, Slippery Elm 



Ulmus fulva, A. Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 172 (1803); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1407 

 (1838) ; Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, t. 233 (1880) ; Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 53, 

 t. 314 (1895), ar, d Trees N. Amer. 293 (1905). 



Ulmus americana, Linnaeus, var. rubra, Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 319 (1789). 



Ulmus rubra, F. A. Michaux, Hist. Arb. Amer. iii. 278, t. 6 (1813). 



(?) Ulmus pubescens} Walter, Fl. Carol. 112 (1788); Sudworth, U.S. Forest. Bull. No. 17, p. 60 

 (1898); Pinchot, U.S. Forest. Circ. No. 85 (1907). 



A tree, attaining in America 70 ft. in height and 6 ft. in girth. Bark with shallow 

 fissures and covered with large thick appressed scales. Young branchlets, fawn- 

 coloured, with numerous minute tubercles, and densely clothed with a short white 

 pubescence ; those of the second year tuberculate, fissured but not finely striate on 

 the surface ; remaining smooth and not developing corky ridges in the third and 

 fourth years. Buds ovoid, with reddish brown scales, covered with long silky 

 appressed hairs. Leaves (Plate 41 i Fig. 8) oval to obovate - oblong, about 

 5 to 7 in. long and 2 to 3^ in. broad, very oblique and unequal at the base, 

 acuminate at the apex ; upper surface scabrous with minute sharp-pointed tubercles, 

 and short stiff hairs ; lower surface densely clothed with white soft pubescence, 

 conspicuous on the midrib and veins, and forming axil-tufts at their junctions ; lateral 

 nerves about sixteen pairs, often forking before reaching the margin, which is ciliate 

 and coarsely biserrate ; petioles stout, \ to \ in. long, glandular, densely pubescent. 



Flowers in crowded fascicles on short pedicels ; calyx campanulate, with a narrow 

 tubular part below ; sepals five or six, faintly pink, often irregular in size ; stamens 

 five, six, or seven, with white filaments and dark red anthers ; stigmas tinged with 

 pink on their inner side. Fruit nearly orbicular or obovate, \ in. in diameter, rounded 

 or slightly emarginate at the apex, with a minute notch closed by the incurved 

 stigmas, pubescent over the seed-cavity, but elsewhere glabrous and non-ciliate ; 

 seed in the centre of the samara. 



The slippery elm is distributed from the valley of the lower St. Lawrence south- 

 wards to western Florida, central Alabama and Mississippi, and the valley of the 

 San Antonio river in Texas, and westwards through Ontario to north Dakota, eastern 

 Nebraska, and northern and western Kansas. Throughout its entire range it is less 

 common than U. americana, often occurring as a solitary tree in open woods, or less 

 frequently on the moist banks of streams in almost pure stands. It is always a small 

 tree, the largest measured by Emerson being 6 ft. 10 in. in girth. It thrives best in 

 rich alluvial soil, but grows fairly well on rocky hill sides, and is often found on dry 

 limestone ridges. It is called orme gras by the French Canadians, and is more 

 common than U. americana in some localities near Montreal. 2 



The inner bark is fragrant and mucilaginous, and is officinal in the United States 



1 It is not certain whether the description by Walter, which is unsatisfactory, refers to U. fulva or another species, and 

 his name, though older than that of Michaux, cannot be adopted. 

 * Garden and Forest, 1894, p. 413. 



