DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 131 



streets and avenues, the greater portion of their peculiai 

 loveliness. The elm should not be chosen where large 

 groups and masses are required, as the similarity of its 

 form in different individuals might then create a mo- 

 notony ; but as we have before observed, it is peculiarly 

 well calculated for small groups, or as a single object. 

 The roughness of the bark, contrasting with the lightness 

 of its foliage and the easy sweep of its branches, adds 

 much also to its effect as a whole. 



We shall briefly describe the principal species of the 

 elm. 



The American White elm. (Ulmus Americana.) This 

 is the best known and most generally distributed of our 

 native species, growing in greater or less profusion over 

 the whole of the country included between Lower Canada 

 and the Gulf of Mexico. It often reaches 80 feet in 

 height in fine soils, with a diameter of 4 or 5 feet. The 

 leaves are alternate, 3 or 4 inches long, unequal in size 

 at the base, borne on petioles half an inch to an inch in 

 length, oval, acuminate, and doubly denticulated. The 

 seeds are contained in a flat, oval, winged seed-vessel, 

 fringed with small hairs on the margin. The flowers, 

 of a dull purple color, are borne in small bunches on 

 short footstalks at the end of the branches, and appear 

 very early in the spring. This tree prefers a deep rich 

 soil, and grows with greater luxuriance if it be rather 

 moist, often reaching in such situations an altitude of 

 nearly 100 feet. It is found in the greatest perfection in 

 the alluvial soils of the fertile valleys of the Connecticut, 

 the Mississippi, and the Ohio rivers. 



The Red or Slippery elm. (U. fulva.) A tree of 



