xX. I. THE AMERICAN ELM. 289 
periors, the maples, the ashes, the birches, the beeches, and 
even of the lordly oak itself. 
But the elm bears pruning better, and requires it less than 
almost any tree, for it usually throws out no branches below a 
height of twelve to twenty or thirty feet. It grows, too, with 
great rapidity, for its roots run, just beneath the surface, to a 
great distance, and thus get the best of the soil. 
The flowers are in numerous clusters of from eight to twen- 
ty in a cluster, on the sides of the terminal branches. Each 
flower 1s supported on a green, slender, membranous thread, from 
one fifth to half an inch long, and consists of a brown cup, parted 
into seven or eight divisions, rounded at the border, and con- 
taming about eight brown stamens, and a long, compressed 
ovary, surmounted by two short styles. This ripens into a 
flattened seed-vessel, called a samara, which is winged on every 
side, with a thin, ciliated or fringed border. The flowers appear 
early in April or even in March, and the samaree are mature 
before the full expansion of the leaves. 
The leaves are on very short footstalks, broad ovate, heart- 
shaped, rounded or rarely acute at base, acuminate, conspicu- 
ously doubly serrate ; divided by the mid-nb into very unequal 
parts, of which the upper 1s larger; somewhat tomentose when 
young, afterwards roughish on both surfaces, particularly the 
upper; usually from two to four or five inches long, and one 
and a half to two and a half broad, but varying extremely in 
size. ‘Ihe rich green of the leaves turns, in autumn, to a sober 
brown, which is sometimes touched with a bright golden yellow. 
The elder Michaux found the elm as far north, in Canada, 
as 48° 20’, According to Hooker, it is found from Saskatch- 
awan to York Factory, on Hudson’s Bay. The younger Mi- 
chaux traced it from Nova Scotia to Georgia, and says that it 
is found in the extreme western part of the country. He con- 
siders the country between the 42° and 46° of latitude as most 
favorable to its growth. To this, probably, no part, considering 
the soil, is better adapted than Massachusetts. This tree grows 
in almost any soil, but never attains its loftiest elevation ex- 
cept in rich, moist ground, such as 1s found on the banks of our 
larger rivers. In such situations, it has so rapid a growth, that 
38 
