thp: elm family. 13^ 



THE ELM FAMILY. 



A group of trees or shrubs ivith sifuple^ alternate and pet ioled leaves 

 /laviJig stipules at their bases ; and which are pinnately-veined, oitire or 

 in various ways serrate. Flowers : very small ^ perfect^ monoecious or 

 dioecious. Petals : none. Fruit : a samara^ or a s??iall, siceet drupe. 



{Plate XLVIII.) 



Ulmus scrot)na. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Elm. Spreading, dyanches ^o-so/eet Georgia, Tennessee^ Early autumn. 



pendulous. or more. Alabama. Fruit: November. 



Bark ; light grey ; close. Branc/ilets : reddish brown and marked with ])ale, 

 cell-like dots ; becoming corky-winged with age. Leaves: one and a half to three 

 inches long, with glabrous or glabrate petioles about one quarter of an inch in Icngtii ; 

 oblong to oblong-obovate, taper-pointed at the apex and narrowed or rounded at 

 the base ; mostly one-sided ; innnately-veined ; doubly and coarsely serrate ; 

 yellowish green and lustrous above ; slightly pubescent underneath along the ribs. 

 Flower buds : axillary ; smooth ; shiny and being noticeable on the tree when in 

 full leaf. Flowers : minute, growing on jointed pedicels in drooping racemes. 

 Calyx : with obovate lobes, divided to below the middle. Samaras : bright 

 green, oval, or ovate and surrounded with a white silky fringe. 



This remarkable elm seems not to be very generally known even to the 

 world of science. In its way of blooming late in the autumn it is unusual, for 

 then its delicate sprays of flowers mingle with leaves which have lost even 

 their autumn orange colouring and have turned to the dull tobacco tints of 

 the later season. In fact, before the pale, apple-green samaras fairly gleam 

 through the tree, its leaves have nearly all fallen. In Dr. Chapman's 

 southern flora and by Professor Sargent, in his silva, the tree has been con- 

 fused with Ulmus racemosa, although under that name specimens of its 

 leaves only have been distributed. It is, no doubt, the Ulmus racemosa of 

 the south and it was not until 1898, that the tree was found blooming in 

 October by Mr. John Muir, Mr. Canby and Professor Sargent, the latter 

 afterwards naming it Ulmus serotina. Mr. Boynton of the Biltmore Her- 

 barium also saw its flowers at Rome, Georgia ; where in the streets it is 

 much planted as a shade tree, growing well and displaying a large, hand- 

 some crown. Other places where it grows are along the river banks of the 

 French Broad near Dandridge ; the Cumberland near Nashville, Tennessee, 

 and also near Huntsville, Alabama. 



U. alata, winged elm or wahoo, designates a small tree which is mostly 



