96 
ULMUS 
of the lamina, longer in shade-grown plants, hairy. Laminae large, thick, obovate, very asymmetrical 
at the base, doubly and coarsely serrate, acuminate, sometimes tricuspidate, about 11 — 12 cm. long 
and 4'5 — 5^5 broad, scabrous and hairy above, softly hairy below, hairs sometimes microglandular ; 
the first of our elms to unfold its leaves in spring, and the first to shed them in autumn. 
Inflorescences large, crowded, pale red in colour. Flowers produced on younger trees than in the 
preceding species ; late February and early March. Pedicels short. Perianth larger than in any of the 
preceding species, transversely and unevenly furrowed, with 4 — 7 usually 5 — 6 segments, ciliate. 
Stamens 4 — 7, usually 5 — 6, much exserted. Filaments rosy. Anthers dark purple. Stigmas deep 
red, very hairy. Fruits large, up to nearly 3 cm. long and nearly 2 broad, usually slightly ovate, 
sometimes elliptical-acute. Seed in the centre of the fruit ; sinus small, open or closed ; when open 
basal angle very acute reaching only a quarter of the way down to the seed. Seedlings differing 
from those of the preceding species in having the first few pairs of leaves opposite and the later 
ones alternate, not uncommon in damp woods. 
Hudson’s name Ulmus glabra refers to the character of the young bark remaining smooth (i.e., not becoming striate) 
in its second year : Hudson’s expression is “ cortice glabro.” Miller’s name U. glabra , given later to another species, refers 
to the leaves — “ Ulmus folio glabro,” and is a synonym of U. nitens. In reverting to the name U. glabra for the wych 
elm, we are following Rendle and Britten’s List of British Seed Plants (1907), and the 10th edition of The London 
Catalogue of British Plants (1908). This usage is unfortunately rendered necessary by the international rules of botanical 
nomenclature, which demand the retention of the earliest trivial name applied to a species, beginning with the first edition 
of Linne’s Species Plantarum of 1753. The more familiar name Ulmus montana of Stokes has, we regret to state, no 
claims to acceptance by those botanists who follow the international rules ; and the name Ulmus scabra of Miller, which 
some authorities have recently adopted in lieu of Hudson’s, seems to us an illogical compromise. 
Some writers have avoided the difficulty by limiting the Linnaean name U. campestris to this species ; but this position 
is untenable owing to the fact that Linnaeus, in his references to U. campestris , does not cite the pre-Linnaean name 
of the wych elm, namely, U. tnontana Bauhin Pinax p. 427, although he cites another synonym of this authority, namely, 
U. campestris et theophrasti. Further, in FI. Suec. p. 81 (1755), Linnaeus says of the timber of his U. campestris “lignum 
durum, tenax”; and this does not apply to the wych elm. Finally, the only occasion on which Linnaeus definitely restricts 
his name U. campestris to a single plant is in his Flora Anglica (1754), where he applies the name to the English elm and 
to this plant alone. 
Regarding the plant of the Linnaean herbarium, Bromfield (FI. Feet. 451 — 452) states that the specimen in the Linnaean 
herbarium “is rather our U. montana or some one of its varieties.” This somewhat guarded statement is made more definite 
than it really is by Hooker and Arnott (Brit. FI., ed. 5, 377), where it is stated that the specimen “is certainly” the U. montana 
Stokes (= U. glabra Hudson) “as... Bromfield has proved.” In our own judgment, the specimen in the Linnaean herbarium 
should be referred to a form of U. glabra x nitens. 
U. glabra , at the present time, is known as the wych elm in most parts of the British Isles, but was formerly designated 
the wych hazel or “witch hasell.” Formerly there were two wych elms, (1) the rough-leaved wych elm (U. campestris ), now 
known as the English elm, and (2) the smooth-leaved wych elm (U. nitens ). In eastern England, U. nitens and those 
hybrid-elms approaching U. nitens , are still known as wych elms. The name wych hazel still persists in eastern England 
for Carpinus betulus. 
(($) forma grandidentata comb. nov. ; U. corylacea var. grandidentata Du Mortier FI. Belg. 25 (1827); U. 
major Reichenbach fil. Icon, xii, 13 (1850) non Smith, excl. omn. syn. auct. angl. ; U. montana var. tridens Lange 
Haandb. Danske Ft. 267 (1886 — 8); U. scabra var. major Rouy FI. France xii, 267 (1910) excl. syn. Smith; 
U. scabra race major Ascherson und Graebner Syn. iv, 565 ( 1 9 1 1 ) excl. syn. Miller et syn. Smith. 
leones : — Reichenbach Icon. t. 665, fig. 1335, as U. major. 
Young branches and buds stouter, larger, and more hairy than in the common form. Laminae 
larger, thicker, and more hairy than in the common form, often with 1 or more very large teeth 
on each side of the central one. 
We have only seen this forma in cultivation. 
Damp woods and hedgerows ; from the Channel Islands, Cornwall, and Kent northwards to 
Caithness ; attaining an altitude of 305 m. as an indigenous tree in Derbyshire, and commonly planted 
in the same county up to 457 m. ; commonest in the west and north of Great Britain, particularly 
on the fissured limestones ; much less common in southern England in the beech woods on chalk 
and in the oak woods on the damper greensands ; rare or absent on clay and marl ; rare in 
central and eastern England, in many parts of which the tree is not indigenous ; indigenous in 
western and northern Ireland; perhaps only planted in eastern Ireland. 
Europe, northwards to 67° N. in Scandinavia, and ascending to 1300 m. in the Tyrol; north- 
western and northern Asia to the Amur region ; northern Africa (? indigenous). 
