SLIPPERY ELM 
Leaves.—Alternate, ovate-oblong, five to seven inches long, 
rounded at the base en one side and oblique on the other, coarsely 
and doubly serrate, acute or acuminate. Feather-veined, midrib 
very prominent beneath. They come out of the bud conduplicate, 
thin, light green; when full grown they are thick, firm, dark green, 
rough above, paler and somewhat rough beneath. In autumn they 
turn to a dull yellow. Petioles short, hairy ; stipules caducous. 
flowers.—March, April, before the leaves. Perfect, borne in 
clusters on short pedicles produced from the axils of minute green 
bracts. 
Calyx.—-Campanulate, five to nine-lobed, green, hairy; lobes 
imbricate in bud. 
Corolla.-— Wanting. 
Sfamens.—Five to nine, exserted, light yellow; filaments slender ; 
anthers dark red, do not shed their pollen until the stigmas have 
begun to wither, extrorse, two-celled ; cells opening longitudinally. 
Pistil.—Ovary superior, one-celled by abortion; stigmas two, red- 
dish purple; ovules solitary. 
fruit..—Samaras, winged all round, maturing when leaves are half 
grown, semi-orbicular, one-half to three-fourths of an inch broad, 
hairy on the faces but naked at the margins; emarginate with re- 
mains of both stigmas at the apex. Wing is broad and thin and 
marked by the dark line of union of the two carpels. 
Although the White Elm and the Slippery Elm look very 
much alike there are several points of difference which make it 
fairly easy to distinguish them. The White Elm varies greatly 
in the size of its leaves. There ; 
may be individual White Elms 
whose leaves are larger than in- 
dividual Slippery Elms but upon 
the whole, given the same con- 
ditions, the foliage mass of a 
Slippery Elm is made up of 
larger leaves than that of the 
White Elm. The leaves are 
much rougher, they are rough 
whichever way you rub them, 
while the White Elm leaves are 
smooth one way and rough the other. The buds are hairy, 
those of the White Elm smooth. In the spring the leaves 
of the Slippery Elm come out protected and adorned with 
Slippery Elm, Ulmus pubescens. 
Samaras 14/ to 34’ long. 
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