Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. I 
NO. 14 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
1 ''Wary 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. 
JULY 23, 1915 
European Elms. There is probably more confusion in the identifica- 
tion and proper naming of these trees in American parks and gardens 
than of any other group of trees, and it is only in very recent years 
that English botanists have been able to reach what appear to be 
sound conclusions in regard to them. The confusion started with Lin- 
naeus who believed that all the European Elms belonged to one species, 
and it has been increased by the appearance of natural hybrids of at 
least two of the species and by the tendency of seedlings to show 
much variation from the original types. There are five species in 
Europe; the first of these is 
Ulmus campestris. It is this tree which is generally spoken of as 
the English Elm in eastern Massachusetts where it was planted more 
than a century ago and where it has grown to a larger size than any 
other tree planted in this region. The Paddock Elms, which were once 
the glory of Tremont Street, and the great English Elms which stood 
on Boston Common until a few years ago were of this species, and 
large specimens can still be found in the suburbs of the city. Ulmus 
campestris is a tall tree with dark rough bark, massive ascending 
branches, comparatively small, rough, ovate leaves with hairy petioles 
not more than one-fifth of an inch long, and young branchlets covered 
with short soft hairs. In England and the United States it very 
rarely produces fertile seeds but great quantities of suckers by which 
it is propagated. This tree possibly only grows naturally in the 
hedge rows and parks of southern England where it may be indige- 
nous. It was largely planted in the Royal Park at Avanguez, near 
Madrid, toward the end of the sixteenth century, but it has been usu- 
ally believed that these trees were imported from England. The trees, 
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