126 



ULMUS. 



at no very great height from the ground, in the great 

 diverging limbs which go to form its magnificent head. 

 The branches, from their weight of foliage and rampant 

 growth, usually take a drooping direction, and in fine 

 old trees are almost pendulous, and hang in rich festoons. 

 The leaves are much 



larger than those of U. 

 campestris or any of its al- 

 lied kinds, being broadly 

 elliptical, with a longer point 

 and more deeply serrated ; 

 their upper surface is rough- 

 ened with small hairy tu- 

 bercles, the under surface 

 downy, with the ribs hairy 

 at their origin and subdivi- 

 sions. The bark of the 

 young shoots is downy, but the branches never become 

 suberous or uneven. The flowers are on longish peduncles, 

 and more loosely tufted than those of the U. campestris ; 

 they are of a purplish red colour, and give a rich aspect 

 to the ramification of the tree, previous to the expansion 

 of the leaves ; and the samera is nearly orbicular, with a 

 notch reaching about half-way to the seed. 



Unlike the U. campestris and its group, the Wych 

 Elm never throws up suckers from the roots, though a 

 bunch of parasitical shoots are frequently seen issuing 

 from the bottom of the stem ; the want of suckers, as 

 a mode of propagating itself, is, however, amply compen- 

 sated by the abundance of perfect seed it produces. 



In beauty of form, and not less in picturesque eifect, 

 the Wych Elm holds a distinguished place among our 

 British forest trees, and though Gilpin allows it to be 



