322 TREES IN" WINTER 



SLIPPERY ELM 



Red Elm, Moose Elm. 



Ulmus fulva Michx. 



U. puhescens Walt. 



HABIT — A small to medium-sized tree, 40-60 ft. in height with a 

 trunk diameter of l-2i/^ ft.; forming a broad open rather flat-topped 

 head, resembling- the White Elm but with less drooping branches, 



BARK — Grayish-brown, more or less deeply furrowed, the ridges 

 tending rather more than in the White Elm to lift along one edge, inter- 

 nally reddish-brown without conspicuously whitish layers (see bark sec- 

 tion in plate); inner bark next the wood, whitish, strongly mucilagi- 

 nous, giving the name Slippery Elm. 



TWIGS — Light, grayish, hairy, roughened by numerous raised lenti- 

 cels, strongly and characteristically mucilaginous if chewed. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, 2-ranked, with generally .3 sunken bundle- 

 scars, resembling those of the White Elm. 



BUDS — Terminal bud absent; lateral buds about 6 mni. long, dark 

 brown, covered especially at their tips with long rusty hairs; flower 

 buds more or less spherical. BUD-SCALES — in 2 ranks of a nearly 

 uniform color. 



FRUIT — A flat round entire- winged fruit without hairy fringe, ripen-" 

 ing in spring. 



C03IPARIS0NS — The Slippery Elm is easily distinguished from the 

 common White Elm and the rarer Cork Elm by its rough gray twigs, 

 its dark buds covered with long rusty hairs and by the strongly 

 mucilaginous character of the inner bark of the trunk and even, though 

 to a somewhat less extent, of the twigs, and further from the White 

 Elm by the absence of distinct white layers in the outer bark. 



DISTRIBUTION — Rich, low grounds; low, rocky woods and hillsides. 

 Valley of the St. Lawrence, apparently not abundant; south to Florida; 

 west to North Dakota and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — District of Maine, rare; Waterborough, 

 (York county); New Hampshire — valley of the Connecticut, usually 

 disappearing within ten miles of the river; ranges as far north as the 

 mouth of the Passumpsic; Vermont — frequent; Massachusetts — rare in 

 the eastern sections, frequent westward; Connecticut — rare to frequent; 

 Rhode Island — infrequent. 



WOOD — Heavy, hard, strong, very coarse-grained, durable, easy to 

 split, dark brown or red, with thin lighter colored sapwood; largely 

 used for fence posts, railroad ties, the sills of buildings, the hubs of 

 wheels and in agricultural implements. The thick fragrant mucil- 

 aginous inner bark is used in medicine as a demulcent and is some- 

 what nutritious. 



