The YOUKC NATURALIST : 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Part 52. MARCH, 1884. Vol. 5. 



THE ELM. 



By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



OME forth, come forth! it were a 

 sin 



To stay at home to-day ! 

 Stay no more loitering within, 

 Come to the woods away ! 



That first pale green is on the trees ; 



That verdure more like bloom ; 

 Yon elm-bough hath a horde of bees, 



Lured by the faint perfume. 



As yet our flowers are chiefly those 

 Which fill the sun-touched bough ; 



Within the sleeping soil repose 

 Those of the radiant brow." 



The Elm is the first of our forest 

 trees to respond to the benignant and 

 life-awakening power of Spring. Al- 

 ready in the first week of Febrnary, 

 the tree tops are ruddy with the russet 

 scales of the swollen flower-buds, which 

 are almost ready to unfold under the 

 warm rays of the mid-day sun. Before 

 the buds of any of the rest of our 

 woodland trees shall have burst their 

 swaddling bands, the elm will have 

 passed its stage of flowering, and its 

 hop-like clusters of fruit will be adorn- 

 ing its topmost boughs. Like many 

 other trees and shrubs, the flowers of 

 the elm are produced in advance of 



its foliage, and the development of its 

 leaves are the signal for the fall of its 

 fruit. Individually, the flowers of the 

 elm are minute and unattractive, but 

 they are so numerous as to be con- 

 spicuous in the mass. They appear in 

 little clusters of six or eight together, 

 on the young branches of the previous 

 year's growth, each cluster is sur- 

 rounded at the base by a number of 

 little brownish scales, and the individual 

 flower consists of a small stalked cup- 

 shaped four or fi>e lobed calyx, ruddy 

 in hue and scaly in character. There 

 is no corolla, but within the calyx are 

 four or five stamens. The pistil, which 

 is free in the centre, has a two-cleft 

 stigma. The fruit is a samara, having 

 a broad wing-like appendage, thin, flat 

 and nearly round, with the small seed 

 in the centre. The fruit is produced 

 in great profusion, but it seems to very 

 rarely contain perfectly matured seeds, 

 for although the conditions appear 

 peculiarly favourable for the dispersion 

 of the fruit, as it is borne on the top- 

 most branches, and almost ready to be 

 shed before the leaves appear, besides 

 being furnished with admirable appa- 

 ratus for sailing through the air to a 



