chap. ci. ulmjCckie. u'lmvh. 1407 



ramify at the height of 8 ft., 10ft., or 12ft. } and their limbs, springing at the 

 same point, cross each other, and rise with a uniform inclination, so as to 

 form on the summit a sheaf-like head, of regular proportions and admirable 

 beauty." {Ibid.) The white elm is a native of North America, from Nova 

 Scotia to Georgia, a distance of 1200 miles; but it is found in the greatest 

 perfection in Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the north-eastern 

 section of the United States, and Genessee in the state of New York. The 

 white elm delights in low humid situations ; soils such as, in the northern states, 

 are called interval lands. In the middle states, it grows in similar situations, 

 and on the border of swamps. West of the mountains, it abounds in all the fer- 

 tile bottoms watered by the great rivers that swell the Ohio and the Mississippi, 

 particularly on the brink of the rivers, where its base is inundated at the rising 

 of the waters in the spring. The wood is used for the same purposes as the 

 European elm, but it is decidedly inferior in strength and hardness; it has also 

 less compactness, and splits more readily. The bark is said to be easily de- 

 tached during eight months of the year. Soaked in water, and rendered supple 

 by pounding, it is separated into shreds, or ribands, which are used, in the 

 northern states, for weaving into seats for common chairs, as rushes are in 

 England. {JMichaux.) This tree was introduced into England in 1752, by 

 Mr. James Gordon ; though, as Martyn observes, no notice is taken of it, or 

 of any other American elm, in the edition of Miller's Dictionary which was 

 published sixteen years afterwards. The three varieties have doubtless existed 

 in the arboretum at Kew, and, probably, in the grounds at Syon ; but they are 

 not now to be found in either of these collections. The only plants which we 

 have seen are those in the Horticultural Society's Garden ; where there are 

 several from 15 ft. to 30 ft. in height. They bear a general resemblance to 

 U. montana, both in their naked and clothed state ; but they are readily 

 distinguished from that species by the roughness of their bark. The leaves, 

 also, are more pointed, longer in proportion to their breadth, have longer foot- 

 stalks, and are of a finer green. They so closely resemble other trees, marked, 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden, U. hispanica, as scarcely, if at all, to 

 be distinguishable from them. Michaux sent seeds of this elm to France in 

 1807, from which several thousand plants were raised ; and of which, according to 

 the Nouveau Du Hawcl, there are very fine specimens at Trianon, where they 

 are distinguished from all other elms by the superior beauty of their leaves. 

 Cobbett informs us that he imported a quantity of elm seed from the borders 

 of Lake Ontario, which was gathered from a tree that had a clear straight 

 stem 70 ft. high, before it began to ramify ; but that these seeds, from having 

 been put together before they were thoroughly dried, had fermented on the 

 passage, and not one ever came up. {Woodlands, &c, p. 241. and 242.) In 

 the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, there is a tree which, in 1828, was 25 ft. 6 in. 

 high, with a trunk 7 in. in diameter. Price of plants, in the London nurseries, 

 l<y. each ; and the weeping variety is 50 cents. 



*£ 10. U. (a.) fu'lva Michx. The tnwny-bndded, or slippery ; Elm. 



Identification. Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer., 1. p. 172. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 1. p. 200. ; Spreng. Syst. 



Veg., 1. p. 931. ; Rees's Cyclop., No. 10. ; Lodd. Cat, ed. 1836. 

 Synonyincs. U. rdbra Michx. Arb., 3. p. 278., and a fig., North Amer. Sylva, 3. p. S9. t. 128. ; Qnne 



gras, French of Canada and Upper Louisiana ; red Elm, red-wooded Elm, Moose Elm. 

 Engravings. Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 3. t. 128. ; and our fig. 1247. 



Spec. Char., Sf-c. Resembles the Dutch elm. Branches rough, whitish. 

 Leaves ovate-oblong, acuminate, nearly equal at the base, more or less 

 cordate there; serrate with unequal teeth, rugose, very rough, hairy on 

 both surfaces : they are larger, thicker, and rougher than those of U. 

 americana. Leaf buds tomentose, with a tawny dense tomentum : they are 

 larger and rounder than those of U. americana. Scales of the buds that 

 include the flowers downy. Peduncles of flowers short. Samara not fringed, 

 very like that of U. campestris ; orbicular, or, according to the figure in 

 Michaux's North American Sylva, obovate. {Michx., Pursh.) Leaves vari- 

 able in shape and serratures, but more downy than the other North Ame- 



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