Ulmus 192-3 



ULMUS JAPONICA 



Ulmus japonica, Sargent, Trees and Shrubs, ii. i, t. loi (1907). 



Vlmus campestris, wax. japonica, Sargent ex Rehder, in Bailey, Cyd. Amer. Hort. iv. 1882 (1902). 

 Ulmus campestris, var. Imvis, Fr. Schmidt, in M'em. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. xii. 174 (1868) (in part). 

 Ulmus campestris, var. vulgaris, Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japan, ii. t. 15, figs. 10-21 (1908). 

 Ulmus campestris, Komarov, Flora Manshurice, ii. 82 (1903) (not Linnaeus). 



A tree, attaining in Japan about 100 feet in height, and 12 feet in girth. 

 Young branchlets pale brown, often roughened with minute tubercles or ridges, and 

 covered with dense soft pubescence, more or less retained on the branchlets of the 

 second year, which are fissured and roughened with slight corky ridges ; in some 

 specimens,^ prominent corky ridges are developed in the second and third years. 

 Leaves (Plate 411, Fig. 4) obovate or elliptic, about 3 to 4 in. long, and i^ to 2\ in, 

 wide, oblique at the base, acuminate at the apex ; upper surface scabrous with 

 numerous tubercles and scattered bristle-like hairs ; lower surface pale green, 

 pubescent throughout with white short hairs, conspicuous on the midrib and nerves, 

 and forming slight axil-tufts at their junctions ; lateral nerves twelve to sixteen pairs, 

 prominent beneath, occasionally forking before reaching the margin, which is coarsely 

 biserrate ; petiole ^ to |^ in. long, densely pubescent. 



Flowers nearly sessile, regularly tetramerous, with four sepals and four stamens. 

 Fruit narrowly obovate-oblong gradually tapering to the base, glabrous, non-ciliate, 

 about f in. long, and f in. wide near the apex ; notch open, triangular, with the 

 stigmas slightly incurved ; seed touching at its apex the base of the notch. 



This species is readily distinguished by the peculiar fawn colour of the 

 branchlets in their first season. 



This species, which is closely related to the European U. nitens, is a native 

 of Japan, Manchuria, and Amurland. Komarov states that it is common throughout 

 Manchuria, growing along rivers and on hill-sides, usually solitary, but occasionally 

 forming small woods. (A. H.) 



In Japan, this elm is said by Sargent,^ to occur in the mountain ranges of 

 Hondo at 3000 to 5000 feet, where it is a small tree with the branchlets often 

 conspicuously winged. In Hokkaido this tree is much more abundant, growing 

 on the plains almost at sea-level, and on the lower slopes of the mountains. In the 

 streets and environs of Sapporo it is the most conspicuous tree, and attains 80 to 

 90 ft. in height by 10 to 12 ft. in girth. I measured a tree close to the station at 

 Iwamigawa no ft. by 11 ft., with a clean stem 40 to 50 ft. high; but as a rule it 

 has a more branching and pendulous habit, which reminded me, as it did Sargent, 

 of the American elm, but which is as variable as the habit of U. nitens. I found 

 a tree of this species growing close to one of U. montana in the virgin forest near 



1 Collected by Elwes, in virgin forests at Asahigawa in central Yezo. Cf. also Shirasawa's figure, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japan, 



ii. t. 15 (1908). 



2 In Garden and Forest, \n. 323, fig. 50 (1893), and Forest Flora of Japan, 57, t. 18 (1894), where a tree growing near 



Sapporo is figured. 



