The Elms and the Hackberries 



lotus eaters, who, when they tasted the sweet fruit, straightway 

 forgot their native land, or could not be persuaded to return. 



This innocent little tree, against which this charge has never 

 been proved, bears a better reputation for the qualities of its wood. 

 It is as hard as box or holly, and looks like satinwood when pol- 

 ished. Figures of saints and other images are carved out of it. 

 Hay forks are made of its supple limbs. Rocky, worthless land 

 is set apart by law for the growing of these trees. A seven-acre 

 tract in the south of France yielded, according to Landon, 60,000 

 hay forks per annum, worth $5,000! Suckers from the roots, cut 

 while small, make admirable ramrods, coach whip stocks, and 

 walking sticks. Shafts and axle trees of carriages are made of the 

 larger sticks; oars and hoops from these coppiced trees. This 

 tree is widely scattered, from northern Africa through Europe, 

 and on to India, where it is a shade tree and is planted for its 

 leaves, which furnish fodder for cattle. 



3. Genus PLANERA, Gmel. 



Planer Tree, Water Elm (Planera aquaUca, Gmel.) — Small 

 tree, 30 to 40 feet high, with short trunk and slender, crooked 

 branches forming a low, round crown. Twigs reddish. Bark 

 thin, scaly, grey; inner layers red. ^ooi light, soft, fine grained, 

 brown. Buds small, ovoid, scaly. Leaves, February to March; 

 dull green, paler beneath, 2-ranked, elm-like, 2 to 2^ inches long, 

 unilateral. Flowers with leaves, monoecious or polygamous, 

 axillary, in fascicles, small. Fruit i -seeded drupe in dry, thin, 

 horny, pericarp; seed shiny, black. Preferred habitat, inundated 

 swamps. Distribution, North Carolina to Florida; west to 

 Missouri and Texas. Rare. 



This tree is interesting chiefly as a botanical remnant of its 

 family. Several species of this genus once grew in Alaska and in 

 the Rocky Mountains. Closely related forms are preserved in the 

 tertiary rocks in Europe. 



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