KM) 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



The dark-colored winged twigs add much to the ornamental value of the street trees. 



FRBMONTIA (i'remonlodendron californicum) is not botanically in the elm 

 family, but it is popularly known as slippery elm in the region where it occurs, and for 

 that reason it is here given place among the elms. It is known also as leatherwood. 

 It is a California species, ranging among the lower mountains and higher foothills in 

 dry, gravelly soils, from the Mexican boundary five hundred miles northward in the 

 state. The mucilaginous inner bark tastes like that of the true slippery elm. The 

 shape of the leaf much more resembles sycamore than elm; and it is an evergreen. It 

 bears a bright yellow, roselike flower, and the seeds are small, reddish-brown. The 

 wood is fine grained, clear reddish-brown, with thick, whitish sapwood. It is very 

 soft. The tree attains its largest size among the foothills of the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains, but even there it is too small to have much economic value, seldom 

 exceeding thirty feet in height and a foot in diameter. Its most important use is as 

 a forage plant for cattle and sheep. In that particular it resembles slippery elm in 

 northern woods. The tree is occasionally planted in the eastern states and in 

 Europe for ornament. In its native range it grows slowly. 



