556 ' ULMACE^. 



ULMACE^. 

 CORTEX ULMI. 



Elm Bark; ¥. Ecorce cTOrnie; G. Uhnenrinde, Rusterrinde. 



Botanical Origin — Ulvius camiyestris Smith, the Coramon Elm, a 

 stately tree, widely diffused over Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, 

 southward to Northern Africa and Asia Minor, and eastward as far as 

 Amurland, Northern China, and Japan. It is probably not truly 

 indigenous to Great Britain ; but the Wych Elm, U. montana With., 

 is certainly wild in the northern and western counties ;' the latter is, 

 according to Schiibeler, the only species indigenous to Norway. 



History — The classical writers, and especially Dioscorides, were 

 familiar with the astringent properties of the bark of irreXea, by which 

 name Ulmus cmnjyestris is understood. Imaginary virtues are ascribed 

 by Pliny to the bark and leaves of Ulmus. Elm bark is frequently 

 prescribed in the English Leech Books of the llth century, at which 

 period a great many plants of Southern Europe had already been 

 introduced into Britain." Its use is also noticed in Turner's Herbal 

 (1568) and in Parkinson's Theater of Plants (1640), the author of the 

 latter remarking that " all the parts of the Elme are of much use in 

 Physicke." 



In the Scandinavian antiquity the fibrous bark of Ulmus montana 

 used to be made up into ropes.* 



Description — Elm bark for use in medicine should be removed from 

 the tree in early spring, deprived of its rough corky outer coat, and then 

 dried. Thus prepared, it is found in the shops in the form of broad 

 flattish pieces, of a rusty yellowish colour, and striated surface especially 

 on the inner side. It is tough and fibrous, nearly inodorous, and has a 

 woody, slightly astringent taste. 



Microscopic Structure — The liber, which is the only officinal part, 

 consists of thick-walled, tangentially extended parenchyme, in which 

 there are some large cells filled with mucilage, while the rest contain a 

 red-brown colouring matter. The mucilage forms a stratified deposit 

 within the cell. Large bast-bundles, arranged in irregular rows, alternate 

 with the parenchyme, and are intersected by narrow, reddish, medullary 

 rays consisting of 2 or 3 rows of cells. The bast-bundles contain 

 numerous long tubes about 30 mkm. thick, with narrow cavities; and 

 besides these, somewhat larger tubes with porous transverse walls 

 (cribriform vessels). Each cubic cell of the neighbouring bast-pareur 

 chyme encloses a large crystal, seldom well defined, of oxalate of 

 calcium. 



»0n the word dm, Dr. Prior remarks Cockayne, ii. (1865) pp. 53. 67. 79. 99. 127 



that it is nearly identical in all the Ger- andp. xii.— IntheAnglo-Saxonrecipes.both 



manic and Scandinavian dialects, yet does Elm and Wych Elm are named in the Welsh 



not find its root in any of them, bnt is an " Meddi/f/on Mi/dd/ai" (see Appendix), 



adaptation of the Latin Ulmus. — Popidar Elmwydd or Ilwyf and " Ulmus romaniis," 



Names of British Plants, ed. 2. 1870. 71. Ilwyf Rhufain, are met with. 



'^ Leechdoms, Wortcunn'mg and Starcraft ' Schiibeler, PJlanzenwelt Norwegens, 



of Early England, edited by Kev, O. 1873-75, p. 216. 



