214 TREES 



seven inches in length. There is a reddish or tawny 

 pubescence on all young shoots, and especially on the 

 bud scales in winter. The tree itself, in winter or summer, 

 is much more coarse than its cousin. It is also unsymmet- 

 rical in habit, each limb striking out for itself. Very often 

 one meets a tree quite as one-sided in form as its leaf, 

 and this without any apparent reason. But given a 

 chance to grow without mutilation, the slippery elm at- 

 tains a height of seventy feet, forming a broad, open head, 

 in comparatively few years. It is well worth planting 

 for its lumber and for shade. 



The Rock Elm 



U. Thomasi, Sarg. 



The rock elm or cork elm chooses dry, gravelly upland 

 and low heavy clay soil, on rocky slopes and river cliffs, 

 from Ontario and New Hampshire westward through 

 northern New York, southern Michigan to Nebraska 

 and Missouri. It is more abundant and of largest size 

 in Ontario and in the southern peninsula of Michigan. 



Its leaf is small, thick, and firm, dark green, and turns to 

 brilliant yellow in the autumn. Its flowers and fruits 

 are borne in racemes. At any season, one knows this 

 cork elm by the shaggy bark on its stout limbs that make 

 the tree resemble a bur oak. "Rock elm" and "hickory 

 elm" are names that refer to the hardness of the wood. 

 The wheelwright counts it the best of all elms. Compact, 

 with interlacing fibres, there are spring, strength, and 

 toughness in this wood which adapt it for bridge timbers, 

 heavy agricultural implements, wheel stocks, sills, and axe- 



