Ulmus 1 90 1 



ULMUS MINOR, Goodyer's Elm 



Ulmus minor, Miller,i Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 6 (1768); Reichenbach,^ Icon. Fl. Germ. xii. 12, t. 



660 (1850). 

 Ulmus glabra. Miller, var. minor, Ley, mjourn. Bot. xlviii. 70 (19 10). 

 Ulmus campestris. Smith, Eng. Bot. t. 1886 (1808) (not Linnaeus); Lindley, in Rees, Cyclopadia, 



xxxvii. No. I (181 9). 

 Ulmus sativa. Moss, in Gard. Chron. li. 216 (19 12) (not Miller). 

 Ulmus sativa. Miller, var. Lockii, Druce, List of British Plants, 63 (1908). 

 Ulmus Plotii^ Druce, in Northampton Nat. Hist Journ. 19 11, p. 88, and in Gard. Chron. 1. 408 



(1911). 



A small tree, 40 to 90 ft. in height, with the stem usually curving at the 

 summit, and a few short stout ascending branches, and pendulous branchlets, forming 

 a narrow crown of peculiar appearance. Young branchlets slender, with a scattered 

 minute pubescence, glabrous and finely striate in the second year. Leaves (Plate 

 411, Fig. 3) firm in texture, obovate or elliptical, about i^ to 2\ in. long and f to 

 i^ in. broad, unequal and often cordate at the base ; acute, acuminate, or occasionally 

 rounded at the apex ; upper surface dull, scabrous with scattered minute tubercles and 

 minute hairs ; lower surface scabrous and densely pubescent with short hairs in 

 spring, later glabrescent, but with conspicuous axil-tufts ; biserrate ; lateral nerves, 

 eight to ten pairs, often forked ; petiole \ in. long, pubescent. 



Flowers, twenty to twenty-five, in small clusters, on very short pedicels, irregular 

 in the number of sepals and stamens ; calyx funnel-shaped, about \ in. long, with 

 four, five, or six pink lobes ; stamens, three, four, or five, with deep pink filaments 

 and red anthers; stigmas pink. Samarse rarely ripening, but in 1909 a few were 

 produced, narrowly obovate, \ in. long, emarginate at the apex, with a triangular 

 open notch ; seed in the upper half of the samara. 



This tree produces suckers freely. It is possibly a hybrid, as a small packet 

 of seed produced in 1909 fifty -seven alternate-leaved and twenty -eight opposite- 

 leaved seedlings. 



1 Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, No. 6 (1768), describes U. minor a.s "the smooth narrow-leaved elm, by some called the 

 upright elm," and adds that " the leaves are narrower and more pointed than the English elm and are smoother ; they are 

 later in coming out in the spring than these, but continue later in autumn." He identifies it with Ulmus minor folio angtisto 

 ^/a*r«, which is the elm described by him in Car^?. Diet. ed. 3, No. 6 (1737) and in ed. 6, No. 10(1752), as " very common 

 in some parts of Hertfordshire and in Cambridgeshire, where there is scarce any other sort of elm to be seen. This makes a 

 very handsome upright tree, and retains its leaves as late in the autumn as the common small-leaved elm, which is called the 

 English elm by the nurserymen near London ; but it doth not come out so early in the spring." As Miller's U. sativa 

 is undoubtedly the English elm (our U. camfiestris, L.), there is little doubt that Miller's U. minor is Goodyer's elm. The 

 latter was called U. minor by Parkinson, Theat. Bot. 1405 (1640). Plot's Ulmus folio angusto glabra was not cited by Miller, 

 and is U. campestris, var. viminalis. If U. minor. Miller, is objected to, on account of the uncertainty of the description, 

 the tree may be styled U. minor, Reichenbach. 



2 Reichenbach's figure agrees, as regards leaves, flowers, and samarse with English specimens of U. minor, and he cites 

 correctly Smith Eng Bot. t. 1886. It is probable that U. tortuosa. Host, Fl Austr. i. 330 (1827), is identical with 

 U. minor, although Host's specimen in the Kew herbarium is U. nitens. U. tortuosa was said to be a low tree with 

 a twisted trunk and small leaves, which grew in hilly districts in Hungary. ,.,..,.,., 



3 This is not as Druce supposes, the elm described by Plot, Nat. Hist. Oxfordshire, 158 (1677). which is identical with 

 U campestris var. viminalis. See p. 1906. I have examined specimens of the tree at Banbury referred to U. Plotii by 

 Druce, and they agree exactly with U. minor, as here described. Cf. Moss, in Gard. Chron. li. 234, figs. 104, 105, 

 and 106 (1912). 



VII ^^ 



