42 FAMILIAR TREES 



scattered over them in clumps ; stripped of their 

 lower boughs on the margins of our cornfields ; 

 clipped close so as to contribute to the hedge itself; 

 or in the venerable grandeur of unmolested beauty, as 

 the historic tree on some village green. 



The Elms, with three or four other genera, are 

 separated off from the great group of catkin-bearing 

 forest trees to form a distinct Natural Order, the 

 Ulma'cece. They are confined to the North Temperate 

 zone, and of the genus Ulmus there are rather more 

 than a dozen forms admitted to rank as species. 

 These agree in having their leaves "oblique," i.e. 

 unequally lobed at the base, one side being larger 

 than the other ; in their tufted flowers, which are not 

 in drooping catkins, each containing both stamens 

 and pistils; and in the enclosed ovary having two 

 chambers, though the winged fruit which results 

 therefrom has commonly only one chamber with one 

 seed in it. The position of this seed-chamber in the 

 elliptical fruit furnishes the distinguishing characters 

 of our British Elms : in the Common Elm ( Ulmus 

 surculosa Stokes) it is above the centre, and near 

 to the little notch at the top of the samara; whilst 

 in the Wych Elm (17. nwnta'na Stokes) it is below 

 the centre. When, however, instead of poring over 

 dried specimens in the herbarium, we examine the 

 living tree, we see at once many other features that 

 impress us with the individuaUty of several different 

 forms. 



When seen at its best the Elm is a very large tree, 

 exceeding even 120 feet in height, and 40 or 50 feet 

 in girth, though seldom over 100 feet high or 30 feet 



