THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
371 
EUROPEAN ELMS 
European Elms. There is probably more confusion 
in the identification 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 Linnaeus 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 gampestris. 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 
ft 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 indigenous. It was largely planted in the 
Royal Park at Avanguez, near Madrid, toward the end of 
the sixteenth century, but it has been usually believed 
that these trees were imported from England. The 
trees, however, at Avanguez produce fertile seeds in 
abundance and Henry suggests ( Trees of Great Britain, 
vii. 1908) “that this tree may be a true native of Spain, 
'indigenous in the alluvial plains of the great rivers now 
almost deforested.” A dwarf Elm tree with small 
leaves is now usually considered a seedling form of 
Ulmus campestris (var. viminalis). There are forms in 
cultivation with leaves variegated with yellow (var. 
pilminalis aurea) and with white (var. viminalis margin- 
ata). 
Ulmus nitens. This is perhaps the most variable of 
Elm trees in habit and one of the most widely distributed 
of the European trees. It may be distinguished from 
Ulmus campestris by its less deeply furrowed bark, 
mostly glabrous branchlets, longer, often obovate leaves, 
lustrous and usually smooth on the upper surface, with 
petioles from one-quarter to one-half an inch long. The 
seeds of this tree have been sold for years by European 
seedsmen under the name of Ulmus campestris, and a 
great many specimens of this Elm have been planted in 
the United States in the last fifty years under that name. 
Ulmus nitens is a common tree in the southern, midland 
and eastern counties of England, and ranges through cen¬ 
tral and southern Europe to the Caucasus and probably 
to northeastern Asia. In England trees of this Elm 
occur with a broad head of spreading and more or less 
pendulous branches. This form is often called the 
Herefordshire Elm, as it is this particular form which is 
most often found in that part of England, and some of 
‘Ihe old Herefordshire Elms are only surpassed in beauty 
by Ulmus americana as it sometimes grows in New Eng¬ 
land. The Cornish Elm, a tree with erect branches 
which form a narrow pyramidal head, is usually consid¬ 
ered a variety of Ulmus nitens (var. stricta ), although 
some modern authors treat it as a distinct species. This 
'is the common Elm tree of Cornwall and some parts of 
Devonshire, and is also found in Brittany. The Guern¬ 
sey, Jersey or Wheatley Elm (var. Wheatleyi) is another 
pyramidal tree which is believed to be a variety of the 
Cornish Elm, from which it differs in its rather broader 
head, its earlier flowers and wider leaves. It is sonje- 
Jtimes called variety sarniensis. On one of the forms of 
Ulmus nitens (var. suberosa) the branchlets are fur¬ 
nished from the second to the tenth year with corky wings 
which are most developed on sucker shoots. The Elm 
of central Europe referred to as Ulmus nitens is of this 
variety, and young plants in the Arboretum raised from 
seeds collected in Hungary develop these wings when 
only a few years old. An interesting form of U. nitens 
(var. umbraeulifera) is a tree with a dense globose head 
sent from Persia to Germany in 1878. This curious tree is 
doing well in the Arboretum and promises to grow here to 
a large size. Other interesting varieties are var. pendula, 
with very pendulous branches and branchlets, var. Dam- 
pieri, a fastigiate tree with a narrow pyramidal crown, 
hnd var. variegata with leaves blotched with white. This 
appears to be the most common of the Silver-leaved Elms 
and is often seen in American collections where it grows 
to a large size. 
Ulmus glabra. This is the so-called Scotch Elm and 
is also known as U. montana and U. scabra. It is a tree 
with wide-spreading branches making a broad, open, 
round or flat-topped head, large leaves broadest above the 
middle, often three-lobed at the apex, dark green and very 
rough on the upper surface, and covered below with soft 
pale down; their petioles are not more than one-eighth of 
an inch long. This Elm can also be distinguished by 
the fact that the seeds of the fruit are in the middle of 
the surrounding wings. This tree does not produce 
suckers, but great crops of seeds which are blown about 
and germinate freely, and in this country produce innum¬ 
erable plants which often become troublesome weeds. 
In eastern Massachusetts in recent years the leaves of 
this species and its varieties have been injured in early 
summer by the larvae of a leaf-mining insect which feed 
under the epidermis. Ulmus glabra, which owes its 
name to the smoothness of the pale branches, is a native 
*>f northern England and Scotland, and is widelv dis¬ 
tributed through Europe to the Caucasus, appearing 
again in eastern, Siberia, Manchuria, northern Japan, 
and in northern and western China (var. heterophylla ). 
Many seedling forms of Ulmus glabra are in cultivation. 
The best known, perhaps, is the Camperdown Elm (var. 
pendula Camperdownii) . This has pendulous branches 
and branchlets which when grafted on a tall stem form a 
natural arbor. A handsomer weeping form is the var. 
pendula, often found in collections under the name of 
var. horizontalis. The Exeter Elm (var. fastigiata) is a 
narrow pyramidal tree with erect growing branches and 
branchlets. Var. crispa is a small tree with narrow, 
wrinkled, laciniate leaves and is more curious than beau- 
