224 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



Elm Family. 



Genus ULMTJS. 



Leaves simple, alternate, 2-ranked, short petioled, straight 

 veined, usually rather rough. Flowers appear before the 

 leaves in our species; perfect or rarely polygamous, apetalous* 

 greenish, in lateral clusters; calyx 4 to 9 lobed; stamens 4 to 

 9 with long slender filaments; ovary superior, 1-celled or 

 rarely 2-celled, flattened; styles 2, short and diverging. Fruit 

 a samara with a broad membranous margin, 1-celled, 1-seeded, 

 ripens in early summer; seed all embryo. A genus of about 

 fifteen widely distributed species which are mostly large de- 

 ciduous trees, three of which occur in our range. Most of the 

 Elms produce hard tough wood that is often difficult to split. 

 The European species have given rise to many varieties differ- 

 ing from the parent species in many ways but chiefly in habit 

 of growth and color of foliage. A form of the European 

 Scotch Elm (U. Montana) with pendulous habit known in 

 nurseries as Camperdown Weeping Elm, has done very well in 

 a somewhat protected location at the Minnesota Experiment 

 Station and bids fair to make a very ornamental specimen. 

 The stock on which it is worked (probably U. campestris) 

 however has sunscalded. In China a white mucilaginous 

 meal is made from the inner bark of the Elm and is used as 

 food by the mountaineers of. the northern provinces and in 

 the composition of incense sticks. The fruit is employed in 

 medicine and the bark and young fruits are eaten in periods 

 of severe famine. 



Propagation. The species are grown from seeds and the 

 varieties by layers, budding, and grafting. With the ex- 

 ception of the Slippery Elm (q. v. ) the seeds should be sown 

 as soon as gathered. 



Ulmus americana. White Elm. American Elm. 

 Water Elm. 



Leaves 3 to 4 inches long, obovate-oblong to oval, usual- 

 ly smooth on the upper and soft and velvety on the lower sur- 



