Ulmus 1883 



ULMUS MAJOR, Dutch Elm 



Ulmus major, 1 Smith, Eng. Bot. t. 2542 (excl. syn.) (1814); Lindley, Syn. Brit. Flora, 226 (1818); 



Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1396 (1838); Ley, in Journ. Bot. xlviii. 71 (1910). 

 Ulmus hollandica} Miller, Gard. Did. ed. 8, No. 5 (1762) (?). 

 Ulmus hollandica, Moss, in Gard. Chron. li. 217 (19 12). 

 Ulmus fungosa, Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 319 (1789) (?). 

 Ulmus scabra, Miller, var. major, Giirke, in Richter and Giirke, Plant. Europ. ii. pt. i. p. 73 (1897); 



Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 218 (1904). 



A tree, attaining in England over 100 ft. in height and 15 ft. in girth, but usually 

 smaller, with a short bole and irregular wide-spreading branches. Bark of the trunk 

 dark coloured, deeply fissured. Young branchlets glabrous or with a few scattered 

 hairs ; finely striated, glabrous and bright reddish-brown in the second year. Buds 

 ovoid, with minutely pubescent ciliate scales. Leaves (Plate 412, Fig. 15) broadly 

 oval, 3 to 5 in. long, 2 to 3 in. wide, very unequal at the base, contracted at the apex 

 into a rather long serrated point ; upper surface dark green, shining, nearly smooth, 

 with a scattered minute pubescence ; lower surface light green, with conspicuous white 

 axil-tufts, prolonged along the midrib between the insertions of the lower lateral 

 nerves, and with a scattered minute pubescence and numerous minute glands ; nerves 

 about twelve to fourteen pairs, mostly forked ; margin deeply serrate, non-ciliate ; 

 petiole \ to f in. long, pubescent. 



Flowers, often very numerous (twenty to fifty) in the cluster, on extremely 

 short pedicels, mostly tetramerous, with four calyx -lobes and four stamens (but 

 often irregular with five calyx -lobes and four stamens, five calyx-lobes and five 

 stamens, etc.) : calyx, funnel-shaped, lobes pink and unequal ; stamens with filaments 

 tinged with pink and with red anthers ; stigmas bright red. Samarae, on very short 

 pedicels, obovate-oval, when mature f to 1 in. long, and \\ to f in. broad, full and 

 rounded at the apex, which is emarginate, with a short notch usually closed by the 

 incurved stigmas below the emargination ; seed in the upper half of the samara, with 

 its apex close to the base of the notch. 



U. major may almost always be recognised by the large corky ridges, which are 

 developed only on the epicormic branches of the trunk. 2 It produces suckers freely, 

 the stems of which often have bright reddish-brown corky ridges, whilst their leaves 

 and branchlets are more pubescent than those of the adult tree. 



U. major rarely bears fertile seed ; but in 1909, small lots of seed from trees at 

 Brocklesby, Belton, Bayfordbury, and Cambridge produced in each case two seed- 

 lings. These eight seedlings are very variable in appearance, those raised from the 



1 U. major was described and figured by Smith from specimens gathered in England by E. Foster, and is the first certain 

 name. We have not adopted Miller's name, U. hollandica, as his description is uncertain ; moreover, it implies a foreign 

 origin for a tree which is undoubtedly indigenous in England. Miller quotes as a synonym of his elm, Ulmus major hollandica, 

 Plukenet, Aim. ii. 393 (1696), which is described as " anguslis et niagis acuminatis samaris, folio latissimo scabro." 

 Plukenet's elm cannot be determined, but his description excludes U. major, Cf. page 1869, note 2. The usage of 

 " Dutch elm " as a name for U. major apparently began in error about 1730. 



2 In U. nitens, var. suberosa, which is the true cork-barked elm, the branchlets in the crown of the tree are all corky. 



