1928 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



now two healthy trees about 5 ft. high, which are quite hardy, and seem to grow 

 well at Colesborne. I have rarely heard of an elm being struck from cuttings.^ 



(H. J. E.) 



ULMUS PARVIFOLIA 



Ulmus parvifolia, Jacquin, Hort. Schoenbr. iii. 6, t. 262 (1798); Maximowicz, in Mel. Biol. ix. 25 

 (1872); Franchet et Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 431 (1875); Forbes and Hemsley, in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. {Bot) xxvi. 448 (1894); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, i. text 68, t. 37, figs. 

 1-9(1900). 



Ulmus chinensis, Persoon, Syn. i. 291 (1805). 



Ulmus virgata, Roxburgh, El. Ind. ii. 67 (1832). 



Ulmus campestris, var. chinensis, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1377 (1838). 



Planera parvifolia, Sweet, Hort. Brit. 464 (1830). 



Microptelea parvifolia, Spach, in Ann. Sci. Nat. xv. 359 (1841). 



A tree, attaining in China and Japan about 40 ft. in height and 4 ft. in girth 

 Bark scaling off in small plates, showing the reddish brown cortex beneath. Young 

 branchlets slender, sparingly covered with a short wavy white pubescence, retained 

 more or less on the branchlets of the second year, which are fissured, but not finely 

 striate ; on older branchlets corky ridges are not produced. Buds minute, ovoid, 

 pubescent. Leaves (Plate 411, Fig. 5) sub-evergreen, persisting till December or 

 January, ovate- or obovate-lanceolate, thick in texture, i to if in. long, \ ^o \ in. 

 broad, acute at the apex, nearly equal at the base ; upper surface dark green, 

 shining, glabrous, smooth to the touch ; lower surface lighter green, glabrous except 

 for axil-tufts at the junctions of the midrib with the basal nerves ; nerves ten to 

 twelve pairs, usually forked; margin crenately and simply serrate, non-ciliate; 

 petiole, 1^ to ^ in. pubescent. 



Flowers appearing in autumn, in clusters of two to five in the axils of the 

 leaves, on very short pedicels, tetramerous ; calyx deeply cleft into four segments ; 

 ovary minutely pubescent ; stigmas white. Fruit ovate to almost orbicular, about 

 \ in. long, shortly cleft at the apex with convergent densely pubescent stigmas ; 

 surface minutely pubescent ; seed in the centre of the samara. 



U. parvifolia is a native ^ of China, Tongking,^ Formosa,* and Japan. In Japan, 

 it is confined to the southern parts of Hondo, Skikoku, and Kiusiu, where it is 

 usually a small tree, often only 15 to 20 ft. in height. 



In China, it is known as lang-yii, and is widely spread throughout the provinces 

 of the Yangtze valley, and southwards, extending to Tongking. The wood is hard, 

 heavy, and tough, but difficult to cleave, and seldom large enough for planking. 



U. parvifolia is said to have been introduced into France in the reign of Louis 



' In Gard. Chron. xxxix. 35, fig. 20 (1906), u case is illustrated of elm posts, put in the ground for a pergola, which 

 took root and produced abundant foliage at Redworth, Totnes. 



2 The western Tibetan specimens referred to this species by Hooker, Flora British India, v. 481 (1888), are all 

 barren branches, and appear to be U.pumila. Mayr, Fremdldnd. Wald- u. Parkbdume, 524 (1 906), confuses U. parvifolia and 

 U. pumila, stating erroneously that the former is a native of the cold regions of Manchuria and North China. 



' A specimen in the Kew Herbarium was collected by Balansa in the mountains of Tongking at 2700 feet altitude. 



* Collected by me at Bankinsing. 



