ELM. 299 
ULMACEAE. ELM FAMILY. 
Genus UL MUS. 
Leaves simple, alternate, two-ranked, short petioled, straight 
veined, usually rather rough. Flowers appear before the leaves 
in our species; perfect or rarely polygamous, apetalous, grecn- 
ish, in lateral clusters; calyx four to nine lobed; stamens four 
to nine with long slender filaments; ovary superior, one-celled 
or rarely two-celled, flattened; styles two, short and diverging. 
Fruit a samara with a broad membranous margin, one-celled, 
one-seeded, ripens in early summer; seed all embryo. A genus 
of about fifteen widely distributed species, which are mostly 
large deciduous trees, three of which occur in our range. Most 
of the elms produce hard, tough wood, that is often difficult to 
split. The European species have given rise to many varieties 
differing from the parent species in many ways, but chiefly in 
habit of growth and color of foliage. A form of the European 
Scotch Elm (U. Montana) with pendulous habit, known in nur- 
series as Camperdown Weeping Elm, has done very well in a 
somewhat protected location at the Minnesota Experiment Sta- 
tion, and bids fair to make a very ornamental specimen. The 
stock on which it is worked (probably U. campestris), however, 
has sunscalded. In China a white mucilaginous meal is made 
from the inner bark of the Elm, and is used as food by the 
mountaineers of the northern provinces and in the composition 
of incense sticks. The fruit is employed in medicine, and the 
bark and young fruits are eaten in periods of severe famine. 
Propagation—The species are grown from seeds and the 
varieties by layers, budding, and grafting. With the exception 
of the Slippery Elm (q. v.) the seeds should be sown as soon 
as gathered. 
Ulmus americana. White Elm. American Elm. Water 
Elm. 
Leaves three to four inches long, obovate-oblong to oval, 
usually smooth on the upper and soft and velvety on the lower 
surface, coarsely and doubly serrate, taper-pointed, turning to 
a bright yellow before falling. Branches small, slender, ascend- 
ing, at length spreading and pendulous; twigs and buds smooth, 
