220 



THE ELM. 



agree in the following characters : — They are lofty trees, 

 having a straight columnar trunk, with hard wood, a rugged 

 bark, and zigzag, slender branches, which, when young, 

 are either downy or corky. In winter and early spring 

 many of the young twigs may be observed thickly set with 

 bead-like scaly buds, which expand before the leaves, and 

 contain the rudiments of flowers, each of which consists of 

 a calyx of one leaf divided into five purple segments, and 

 inclosing an equal number of stamens of the same colour, 

 and a cloven germen bearing two styles. The stamens 

 soon wither and fall ofi", but the germen enlarges and 



SEED-VESSEL. 



becomes a thin, pale, membranous seed-vessel, rounded 

 and notched at the extremity, and bearing in the centre a 

 solitary seed. The calyx remains attached to the base of 

 the seed-vessel, which does not open, but serves as a wing 

 to waft away the ripe seed, if it does ripen, which is 

 not always the case. So numerous and conspicuous are 

 these seed-vessels, that they might be mistaken, as indeed 

 they sometimes are, when seen from a distance, for tufted 

 foliage — an error which is all the more likely to occur, be- 

 cause the leaves rarely begin to expand until the seeds are 

 nearly ripe. Few persons can have failed to notice the 



