ELM FAMILY 
come out of the bud conduplicate with slightly involute margins, 
pale yellow green, downy ; when full grown are thin, bright green, 
rough above, paler green beneath. Jn autumn they turn to a light 
yellow. Petioles slender, slightly grooved, hairy. Stipules varying 
in form, caducous. 
Flowers.-May, soon after the leaves. Polygamo-moneecious, 
greenish. Of three kinds—staminate, pistillate, perfect; borne on 
slender drooping pedicels. 
Caly.x.——Light yellow green, five-lobed, divided nearly to the base; 
lobes linear, acute, more or less cut at the apex, often tipped with 
hairs, imbricate in bud. 
Corolla Wanting. 
Stamens.--Five, hypogynous ; filaments white, smooth, slightly 
flattened and gradually narrowed from base to apex; in the bud 
incurved, bringing the anthers face to face, as flower opens they 
abruptly straighten; anthers extrorse, oblong, two-celled ; cells 
opening longitudinally. 
Pistil.--Ovary superior, one-celled ; style two-lobed ; ovules sol- 
itary. 
Fruit.--Fleshy drupe, oblong, one-half to three-fourths of an inch 
long, tipped with remnants of style, dark purple. Borne on a slen- 
der stem ; ripens in September and October. Remains on branches 
during winter. 
When one for the first time sees an elm tree bearing ber- 
ries, it gives a shock to all his former ideas. To come upon 
the Hackberry, “tall and stately by the river,” showing its 
elm relationship in the poise of its trunk, in the sweep and 
fall of its branches, in the effect of its follage mas 
; showing 
this so plainly that a novice says, “of course it is an elm,” 
and then to find that elm bearing dark purple berries is in- 
deed a surprise. Certainly the Hackberry is not an elm, and 
its stunted growth in the eastern states would never permit 
it to be mistaken for one, but where it attains its fullest de- 
velopment it shows unmistakably its family relationship. 
Native to the Mississippi valley, it is rare east of the Alle- 
ghanies and west of the Rockies. The wood 1s not very val- 
uable, but as an ornamental tree it has much to recommend 
it. It is tolerant of many conditions of soil and climate, likes 
water but can live in dry situations. Tnsects rarely attack 
its leaves, and it is comparatively free. from serious diseases. 
It is now extensively planted as a shade tree in the western 
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