THE WYCH-ELM— continued. 
These two types have long been known as the Common, English, or Hedgerow 
Elm, Ulmus campestris L., and the Scotch or Wych Elm, Ulmus montana Smith. They 
may be briefly characterised as being, on the one hand, a tree producing abundant 
suckers ; long horizontal limbs, with a rounded head, often of great height ; and 
obovate samaras, with sub-apical loculi and no fertile seed — this form being most 
prevalent to the south of the Trent ; and a tree, more frequent in the north ; without 
suckers, but with an open habit of growth ; ascending, often drooping, branches ; 
large, rough, markedly oblique leaves ; and an orbicular samara, with a central 
seed-loculus and fertile seed. 
It was formerly thought that the non-production of fertile seed by the Common 
Elm was an indication that it was not a native species. The copious production of 
suckers is an obviously compensating adaptation. As a matter of fact, however, the 
Common English Elm is only known on the Continent where it has been 
introduced from England. 
Some recent experiments, made by Dr. Augustine Henry at Cambridge, seemed 
to show that we have in England two true fertile species of Elms and a series of 
hybrids between them ; and that the Common barren hedgerow Elm of southern 
England is not a species but an early cross, preserved from extinction by its suckers 
and by the value which man has attached to its timber. Of its parents, Dr. Henry 
concluded that one was U. nitens Moench, a hedgerow species, producing suckers and 
small, thin, long-stalked leaves, smooth on the upper surface, with slender, nearly 
glabrous, twigs, becoming striated in the second year, and the seed-loculus near the 
apex of the samara ; and the other was the Wych-Elm. Dr. Henry has, however, 
since abandoned this plausible explanation. 
The Wych-Elm, the U. montana of Smith, is, I think, more accurately named 
U. glabra Hudson. As we have said, it seldom, if ever, produces suckers : its 
leaves are large, thick, rough but free from hairs, and short-stalked, and its seed- 
loculus is central ; and Dr. Henry points out that its twigs are thick and pubescent, 
but become smooth in the second year. 
The name “ Wych ” is probably the Early English “ Hwsecce,” the French 
“ Huche,” a chest, our modern “ Hutch,” the wood of this tree having been used in 
making many of the old linen-chests often mistaken for Oak ; but a popular 
misunderstanding of the name has bestowed magic powers upon the tree, whilst a 
likeness in its leaves to those of the Hazel gave it the name ot Wych-hazel, since 
transferred to the very different American genus, Hamamelis. 
