Ulmus. 



ULMACE^E. 



165 



Order XCI. ULMACEjE. Mirbel. The Elm Tribe, 



Flowers mostly perfect, sometimes polygamous by abortion. Calyx campanulate 

 or turbinate, 4 - 8-cleft, imbricate in aestivation. Stamens 5 - 10, inserted on 

 the base of the calyx, as many as its lobes and opposite them. Ovary ovoid, 

 1 - 2-celled, with a single suspended ovule in each cell : styles or stigmas 2, 

 spreading. Fruit a samara, an indehiscent capsule, or a drupe. — Trees, with 

 alternate roughish penninerved serrate leaves, deciduous stipules, and small 

 fasciculate or somewhat racemose axillary flowers. 



1. ULMUS. Linn.; Endl. gen. 1850. ELM. 



[An ancient Latin name of this tree.] 



Flowers perfect. Calyx turbinate -campanulate, 5 - 10 -cleft. Stamens 5-8. Ovary 

 compressed. Fruit a samara, flat, with a broad membranaceous border. — Trees, with 

 simple deciduous leaves and fasciculate (rarely racemose) flowers. 



1. Ulmus Americana, Linn. American Elm. White Elm. 



Branches smooth ; leaves smooth above, pubescent underneath, very unequal at the base, 

 acuminate , the serratures uncinately acuminate ; flowers conspicuously pedicellate, in loose 

 umbellate clusters ; samara oval, densely villose-ciliate on the margin. — Linn. sp. (ed. 2.) 1. 

 p. 327 ; Michx. fl. 1. p. 172, and sijlv. 2. t. 126 ; Pursh, fl. 1. p. 199 ; Bigel. ft. Bost. 

 p. 108 ; Ell. sic. 1. p. 338 ; Torr. ft. I. p. 298 ; Beck, hot. p. 333 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. 

 p. 178 ; Loud. enc. trees and shrubs, p. 724. 



A large tree, sometimes 80 or more feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter (Michaux has 

 seen it 100 feet high and the trunk 5 feet in diameter), with widely spreading branches ; the 

 branchlets slender, flexuous and pendulous. Leaves 3-5 inches long, ovate, rather coarsely 

 and somewhat doubly serrate : petiole 3-5 lines long. Flowers appearing before the leaves 

 expand, in crowded lateral fascicles : pedicels about half an inch long. Scales of the flower- 

 bud fringed with hairs. Calyx campanulate, obliquely truncate, purplish, 8 - 9-cleft ; the 

 lobes rounded and villous. Stamens about eight, exserted ; the anthers purple. Styles 2, 

 scarcely exserted, recurved. Fruit half an inch long, reticulately veined, notched at the 

 summit, tapering at the base into a short stipe, which is included in the calyx. 



Moist woods ; common. Fl. April. Fr. End of May. The wood of this tree is brown, 

 but is not so compact and strong as that of the two succeeding species. 



