TREES FOR WATER CATCHMENT AREAS 161 
volume of timber, which is always in local demand. The 
wood differs from that of the other elms in its dark- 
red heartwood, and is of especial value for making coffins, 
boxes, furniture, etc.; and is of service also, like wych elm, 
for hubs and felloes of wheels, in boat-building, and for uses 
under water. 
The English elm is rarely planted in woods, probably 
on account of the difficulty of procuring it, as seedlings are 
unknown and grafted trees are objectionable. Suckers, 
however, can be dug up wherever large trees occur, and be 
used for planting when oak and other broad-leaved planta- 
tions are being established. It grows very fast in the 
south of England, and a sprinkling of it in such plantations 
would be advantageous. In the Forest of Dean, a mixed 
oak and larch plantation, aged 59 years, in which there 
were a few English elms, showed the following average 
measurements: larch, 59 feet high, +1 inches girth at 
breast height; English elm, 54 feet high, 37 inches girth; 
and oak, 40 feet high, 20 inches girth. These comparative 
measurements show the remarkably fast growth of English 
elm in good woodland soil. 
3. Smooth-leaved elm (Ulmus nitens). This species is 
common in France, Germany, Austria, etc., where it is 
found wild, mixed with common (pedunculate) oak, in the 
forests bordering on the great rivers. Seedlings of it are 
imported from French nurseries under the name U/mus 
campestris, but are totally different from the English elm. 
Smooth-leaved elm is wide-spreading in habit, and on that 
account is often called “wych elm” erroneously in southern 
and eastern England, especially in localities where the true 
Ulmus montana is rare or absent. Smooth-leaved elm may 
be planted in woods, similarly to the English elm, but will 
not produce as good timber or grow as fast as the latter in 
southern England. 
4. Cornish elm (Ulmus stricta). This is a form of the 
smooth-leaved elm, with smaller, firmer leaves and an 
upright habit, which is confined to Cornwall and Devon. 
It succeeds better than the English elm on poor and 
M 
