ELM FAMILY 



twent\', tiny, reddish brown blossoms. In cities where the 

 elm is a common tree tlie side\vall<s are strewn with these 

 discarded bud scales, but the flowers are so small, so 

 brown and so high that the world walks by, thinknig, 

 "Tlie elm never blossoms." Si.x; weeks later the same 

 sidewalks are covered with little, flat, green samaras half 

 an inch long, often as unnoticed as the blossoms which 

 preceded them. 



The typical outline form of the elm is triangular, though it 

 is inclined to vary with location and opportunity. Probably 

 the best description of the varied forms of the elm is found 

 in the report of George B. Emerson upon the Trees and 

 Shrubs of INIassachusetts. He says : "From a root, which 

 in old trees, spreads much above the surface of the ground, 

 the trunk rises to a considerable height in a single stem. 

 Here it usually divides into two or three principal branches, 

 which go off by a gradual and easy curve. These stretch 

 upward and outward with an airy sweep — become horizon- 

 tal, the extreme branchlets and sometimes the extreme half 

 of the limb, pendent, forming a light and regular arch." 



"The American elm affects many different shapes, all of 

 them beautiful. Of these, three are most striking and dis- 

 tinct. The tall Etruscan vase is formed by four or five 

 limbs, separating at twent)- or thirt}' feet from the ground, 

 going up with a gradual divergency to sixty or seventy, and 

 there bending rapidly outward, forming a flat top with a pen- 

 dent border. The single or compound plume is represented 

 by trees stretching up in single stem, or two or three paral- 

 lel limbs to the height of seventy or even a hundred feet, and 

 spreading out in one or two light featherv plumes. The elm 

 often assumes a character akin to that of the oak ; that is 

 when it has been transplanted voung from an open situation 

 and allowed always to remain by itself. It is then a broatl 

 round-headed tree." 



The leaves come out of the bud a pale tender green and 

 folded like little fans. They appear late because the flower- 

 ing and fruiting is virtually over before their arrival. Cling- 



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