Ulmus I 97 



from Volxem in 1879, and is now about 35 ft. high. There are also fair specimens 

 at Bradwell Grove (Oxon), Highnam, Tortworth, and Weston Birt. At Gisselfelde, 

 Denmark, a fine tree is about 60 ft. high. 



8. Var. viminalis aurea, Henry. 



Ulmus Rosseelsii, Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. i. 412 (1872). 



Ulmus campestris, var. aurea, Morren, Belg. Hort. 1866, p. 356, coloured plate; Lemaire, 



Illust.Hort. 1867, t. 513. 

 Ulmus campestris, var. antarctica aurea, Nicholson, in Keu< Handlist Trees, ii. 135 (1896). 



This is a sub-variety ' of var. viminalis, in which the leaves are variegated with 

 yellow. It appears to have originated about 1865 in Rosseel's nursery at Louvain ; 

 and is represented at Kew by a grafted tree about 20 ft. high. 



9. Var. viminalis marginata? Petzold and Kirchner, Arb. Muse. 556 (1864). 



Var. viminalis variegata, Nicholson, in Kew Handlist Trees, ii. 137 (1896). 



This is similar to var. viminalis, but the leaves are variegated with white. 

 There are good specimens at Bayfordbury and Beauport, and a shrub at Kew about 

 10 ft. high. At Ham wood, Co. Meath, Elwes saw a tree about 30 ft. high in 19 10. 



Distribution 



The " English elm," by which name this species is usually known, is a native 

 of southern England, growing in hedgerows, where it reproduces itself only by 

 suckers. It is common in the Thames valley, extending southwards to the Isle of 

 Wight, where it is abundant, and westwards to Devonshire, whence it ascends 

 the Severn valley through Somerset and Gloucester to Worcester and Warwickshire, 

 and the Wye valley to Herefordshire. It is unknown, except as a planted tree in 

 the east of England, where it is replaced mainly by U. nitens; and is totally absent 

 from Cornwall, where it is replaced by the Cornish elm. 



This tree on account of the rarity with which it produces fertile seed, has been 

 supposed to be not indigenous ; and some writers, without any evidence, have 

 asserted that it was introduced by the Romans. It is unknown in Italy, where the 

 elm on which the vines are trained is quite a distinct variety. 3 So far as I can 

 ascertain, it has not been seen in the wild state anywhere but in England ; though 

 an allied form occurs in the south-east of France. 



The English elm has been largely planted in royal parks and public gardens in 

 Spain. Evelyn, 4 speaking of this tree, states : " Those incomparable walks and 

 vistas of them at Aranjuez, Casa del Campo, Madrid, the Escurial, and other places 

 of delight belonging to the King and grandees of Spain, are planted with such, as 

 they report Philip the Second to be brought out of England ; before which (as that 

 most honourable person the Earl of Sandwich, lately his Majesty's Ambassador 



1 It was exhibited at the London Horticultural Society in 1868 by Lee (Card. Chron. 1868, pp. 914, 1038). 



2 A specimen of this in the Sherard Herbarium, Oxford, was gathered in the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1713. 



3 Cf. U. nitens, var. italica, p. 1892. 

 4 Sylva, 33 (1679). The plantation of elms at Aranjuez is further described by Evelyn, Sylva, 303 (1706). 



