The Elms and the Hackberries 



is a serious one. The tree grows fast and vigorously if only the 

 boys give it a chance. The trees are becoming scarcer each year. 



The Rock or Cork Elm (Ulmus Thomasi, Sarg.) has 

 shaggy stout limbs like a bur oak's, and a rugged, stiff expression 

 quite unusual in an elm. A look at the foliage is reassuring, for 

 elm leaves vary but slightly in the different species. In spring 

 the type of inflorescence is the best botanical character to depend 

 upon. 



The cork elm was discovered in the woods of western New 

 York by David Thomas, who noted its corky bark and habit of 

 bearing its flowers and fruit in racemes. He named the species 

 Ulmus racemosa, as was most reasonable. It was discovered 

 later that this name had previously been applied to a European 

 corky elm; whereupon the name of its discoverer was substituted. 



"Rock elm" and "hickory elm" refer to the hardness of 

 its wood. It has in greater degree the good qualities of white 

 elm lumber, and is counted the best of all elms by the wheelwright. 

 Compact, with interlacing fibres, there is spring, strength and 

 toughness in this wood which adapts it for bridge timbers, heavy 

 agricultural implements, wheel stocks, sills, railroad ties and axe 

 handles. 



The best trees, 60 to 90 feet high, with trunks 2 to 3 feet 

 through, grow in dry soil in lower Ontario and Michigan. The 

 species occurs also in scattered localities west to Nebraska and 

 Tennessee, and east as far as Vermont. 



The Winged Elm, or Wahoo {U. alata, Michx.), is not 

 an important timber tree, though its wood is used in the localities 

 where it grows. Its leaves and the two thin, corky blades that 

 arise on the branches are dainty, as befits the smallest of the 

 elm trees. There is none of the ruggedness of the cork elm in the 

 appearance of this pretty, round-headed tree. It rarely grows 

 over 40 feet high, and is distributed from Virginia to Florida, and 

 west to Illinois and Texas. Its small, winged samaras are each 

 prolonged into two prominent incurving hooks at the apex. 

 They hang in pendulous racemes. The tree is occasionally 

 planted for shade in Southern cities, but it is not hardy in the 

 North. "Wahoo" seems to be a term rather indiscriminately 

 applied to elm trees in sections of the South. "Mountain elm" 

 and "small-leaved elm" are significant popular names. 



Two elms have leathery, almost evergreen leaves, and 



235 



