1410 



AKHOKETUM AND FUUTICETU M. 



PART III. 



leaves borne on ■ shoot dial is developed in the same year with themselves. 

 Petiole of leaf not obvious ; disk of leaf elliptical, unequal at the base, 

 dentate. Indigenous to the west of Asia, and upon the shores of the Caspian 

 Sea ; ami to Imiretta and Georgia* on the south of Mount Caucasus. (N. Du 

 Ham,) Introduced in 1760 ; flowering in April or May; and growing to 

 the height of from 50ft. to 70 It. 



Description, AV. The zelkona, in its native country, according to Michaux, 

 is a tree o( the largest size, growing to the height of from 75 ft. to 80 ft., with 

 a trunk of the diameter of about 4- ft. The trunk is straight and upright, often 

 attaining the height oi 25 It. or 30 ft. before it 

 throws out a single branch. The base of the 

 trunk is not enlarged, like that of most other 

 trees, its thickness being very little greater at 

 the surface of the ground than it is at the point 

 of ramification. Like that of the hornbeam, it 

 is marked with longitudinal furrows, like open 

 gutters. The head is large, tufted, and very 

 much branched ; but the branches, though 

 widely extended, are more slender, and more 

 vertical in their direction, than is generally the 

 case with forest trees. The bark of the trunk is 

 not grey and cracked, like that of the elm or __^ 

 the oak, but resembles rather that of the horn- W; 

 beam or beech. As is the case with those trees, 

 the surface of the bark of the zelkoua is smooth, 

 and its texture is firm and compact ; but it has 

 this remarkable difference, that, when the tree 

 becomes about 8 in. in diameter, it scales off' 

 m large thin pieces. The Mowers are small, of 



a greenish brown, and smell like those of the elder; and they are disposed in 

 groups along the shoots of the current year. The fruit is not larger than a 

 pea; and the seeds, which are contained in little gibbous capsules, having two 

 cells, are about the size of a grain of hemp-seed. In Tmirctta (a pastoral 

 district lying between Georgia and the shores of the Black Sea), where the 

 zelkoua is found in the greatest abundance, the seeds ripen in the month of 

 October; but in France they always drop off before they have completed 

 their maturity. This is the more remarkable, from the tree having been 

 introduced into France above seventy years ago, and there being at Versailles 

 a tree above fifty years old, in a most vigorous state of growth, which has 

 resisted the most severe frosts. The foliage strongly resembles that of the 

 elm in its general appearance. The leaves are borne on very short petioles, 

 and arc generally from I in. to ,'iin. long. They are alternate, and equally 

 dentated, or rattier crenulated; differing, in this respect, from those of every 

 kind of elm known ; the leaves of the elm always having every large indentation 

 accompanied by a smaller one. The leaves of the zelkoua are, also, of a much 

 firmer and drier texture than those of the elm; and, it is said, are not, like those 

 of the latter tree, liable to the attacks of insects. When the first tree of this 

 species planted in France was cut down, in 1820, it was found to be 70 ft. 

 mi height, and ils trunk to be 7 ft. in circumference at 5 ft. from the ground. 

 The bole of the trunk was 20 ft. in length, and of nearly uniform thickness; 

 and the proportion of heart-wood to the sap-wood was about three quarters 

 of its diameter. This tree was about fifty years old, but was still in a growing 

 and in rigorou health. ( See Michaux's Miemoire sur le Zelkoua, Paris, 

 1831.) Descemet, in bis Tableau Hktorique des Progree de la Culture de8 Arbres 

 a Odeua, &c., describes this species as a "lofty and beautiful tree, a native of 

 Mingrelia and t .\hich is distinguished by its shining green, broadly 



crennlatcd lit, smooth and greenish trunk." (p. 60.1 In British 



n mm rate oi growth of this tree is similar to that of the beech or 

 common hornbeam; if attaining the height of 20ft. in 10 years. 



