THE SMOOTH-LEAVED WYCH ELM. 135 



as it is rarely met with in other districts of England. 

 It is, to use Sir J. E. Smith's description, " a tall elegant 

 tree, with spreading, rather drooping smooth blackish 

 branches, scarcely downy in their earliest stage of growth." 

 The leaves are of a firm rigid consistence, very smooth 

 on both sides, having no hairs beneath except the axillary 

 pubescence of the ribs ; they are strongly serrated, much 

 smaller than those of the U. montana, and of a more 

 oblong form. The peduncles of the flowers are very 

 short, and the samera, which is smaller than that of the 

 U. montana, and of an obovate shape, is cloven down 

 to the seed. It produces fertile seeds in abundance, and 

 does not throw up suckers, two striking characteristics, 

 strongly in favour of its having originated from the U. 

 montana. We have introduced this Elm under a distinct 

 head, in consequence of several fine varieties having been 

 produced from its seed ; some of these Loudon considers 

 as approaching nearer to U. montana than their parent 

 the U. glabra ; others, he says, appear to partake of 

 the character of the U. campestris and U. suberosa, a 

 fact that would lead us to suppose some intermixture 

 of the species had taken place ; and he informs us that 

 the late T. A. Knight Esq. raised plants from the seed 

 of the Downton Elm, (a variety originally raised from 

 the seed of U. glabra, in 1810,) which are so perfectly 

 similar to the U. suberosa, and which approximate so nearly 

 to the character of U. glabra, that " he (Mr. Knight) does 

 not doubt but that the U. campestris, U. suberosa, and 27, 

 glabra, and three or four varieties which he has seen 

 in different parts of England, are all varieties of the 

 same species." 



