350 



The Elms 



leaves are fully grown; the leaf-stalks are 3 to lo mm. long. The clustered flowers 



unfold long before the leaves in earliest 

 spring, or, in the southern States, in late 

 winter; they are borne on slender stalks; the 

 calyx is much shorter than the stamens, and 

 its lobes are short and hair}'-f ringed. The 

 samaras are oval to obovatc, the two tips 

 converging, overlapping, or erect, its reticu- 

 lated faces smooth, its edges fringed with 

 long hairs. 



The White elm has been more extensively 

 planted for shade and ornament than any 

 other American species, but its use for these 

 purposes has been discouraged in recent 

 times by the ravages of the Elm Beetle, and 

 it is no longer so highly esteemed. The wood 

 is hard and strong, sphts only with difilicuhy, 

 Fig. 307. White Elm. jg [jgi^^ brown, with a specific gravity of 



about 0.65 ; it is largely used in ship-building, for flooring, and for hubs and barrels. 

 Trees occur in northern New Jersey with very rough bark deeply furrowed 

 and but little scaly. 



6. SLIPPERY ELM Ulmus fulva Michaux 



The Slippery elm, so called from its mucilaginous inner bark, is also commonly 

 known as the Red elm, and sometimes as Moose elm. It has also been termed 

 Ulmus pubescens botanically, on account of 

 a tree described by Thomas Walter under 

 that name in 1788, fifteen years before the 

 name fulva was published by Michaux; it 

 is, however, uncertain just what species 

 Walter had in mind, as his description is 

 unsatisfactory. The tree inhabits hillsides 

 and banks of streams, preferring rocky soil, 

 and ranges from Quebec to Florida, west- 

 ward to North Dakota, Nebraska, and 

 Texas; it is uncommon near the coast south 

 of New York. It attains a maximum height 

 of about 25 meters and its trunk is occa- 

 sionally 6 dm. in thickness. 



The rough, thick fissured bark is dark 

 reddish brown, its inner layers fragrant 

 and highly mucilaginous. The young twigs Fig. 308. Slippery Elm. 



