DECIDUOUS TREES. 129 
To secure them, they must be gathered so soon as they 
change to a brown color and the kernel becomes firm. If 
they are sown soon after being gathered, a greater portion 
of them will germinate in a few days and grow to a foot 
or more in height the first.season. But a few of the seeds 
will sometimes remain in the ground without growing 
until the following spring, showing that they are not so 
fragile, and possess greater vitality than the seeds of 
the Silver and Red Maple, which ripen at the same 
time. The seeds are very small and light, and have thin 
membraneous wings that completely surround them, con- 
sequently they are very widely scattered by the wind, if 
allowed to fall from the tree. 
Uxmus Futva (Slippery Him).—Leaves ovate oblong, 
serrate, thick, rough upper surface, soft, downy beneath ; 
young branches pubescent; flowers greenish, appearing 
before the leaves; tree of medium size, with heart-wood 
red, rather soft and brittle; not considered so valuable as 
the next. The inside bark is used for medicinal purposes ; 
common in low grounds both North and South. 
Urmus Americana (White ZLlm, Weeping Eim).— 
Leaves obovate oblong, sharply serrate, thin, slightly pu- 
bescent underneath when young, becoming smooth ; 
branches smooth, slender, often drooping; flowers pur- 
plish, in clusters on a slender-drooping peduncle. 
It is the largest of the native Elms, often growing to 
the height of eighty feet, with stem of six to eight feet in 
diameter; a lofty and wide-spreading tree with a profu- 
sion of slender drooping spray. The wood is tough, and 
much valued by carriage-makers, for cabinet-work, ete 
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