CHAP. Cl.

PXMA'CEiE. ff'LMUS.

1373

several in India . Some of them grow in moist soil. Most of them are treeswith spreading heads and slender branchlets. In some, the bark of thebranchlets and branches has white oblong spots scattered here and there.Leaves alternate, in 2 ranks, ovate and pointed, unequal at the base, serrate,;rough on the upper surface, apparently from the callous bases and remainsof bristles ; annual in the kinds hardy in Britain , and these have the primaryveins forming but a small angle with the midrib, and extending through aconsiderable portion of the length of the disk of the leaf. Stipules lanceolate,soon falling off. Leaves in the bud not folded, but plaited, with scales presentbetween leaf and leaf. Fleshy part of the fruit eatable, but small in quantity.(T. Nees ab Esenbeck , Gen. PI. FI. Germ.; Spreng. Syst. ; Wats. Fend.Biit.; Smith in Rees’s Cycl.; Duby et Fee. Bot. Gallic. ; and observations.)

Genus I.

I/LMU S L. The Elm. Lin. Syst. Pentandria Digynia.

Identification. Lin. Gen., 123.; Lam. Ill., t. 185. ; T. Nees ab Esenbeck Gen. PI. FI. Germ., fasc. 3t. 3. •, Sm. Engl. FI., “2. p. 1, 2. and 19. *, Lindl. Nat. Syst. of Bot., p. 179.

Synonymes . Orme, Fr. ; Ulm , or Riister, Ger . ; Olmo, Jtal.

Derivation. I/'lmus is supposed to be derived from the Saxon word elm, or ulm-, a name which isapplied, with very slight alterations, to this tree, in all the dialects of the Celtic tongue. Ulm isstill one of the German names for the elm and the city of Ulm is said to derive its name fromthe great number of elm trees that are growing near it. There are above forty places in England,mentioned in the Doomsday-Book , which take their names from that of the elm j such as BarnElms, Nine Elms, &c.

Description, Sfc. The elms are long-lived trees, with hard wood; rugged, andsometimes corky, bark; and zigzag, somewhat slender, branches. The leavesare alternate, stalked, deciduous, in general serrated and harsh ; unequal at thebase, and bearing tufts of hairs at the axils of the primary veins. The flowersare earlier than the leaves, tufted, copious, and dark red; the capsules are pale,chaffy, and light, serving as a wing to the seed, which is often imperfect. (SeeSmith’s Engl. Flora, ii. p. 19.) The roots of young plants, in some of thespecies, are of leathery toughness, very strong, of considerable length andsuppleness. The commoner, and perhaps all, the kinds increase rapidly inthe number and the size of their roots and branches. U. campestris emitssuckers from the older roots, which are extended under the surface of thesoil; but this is not the case with U. montana. All have strong upright-growing trunks; but these vary, in the several kinds, in their diameters andlength. The disposition of the branches relatively to the trunk, and to thehead which they constitute, also varies exceedingly; and considerable dif-ference of character prevails in the spray. For example, the tufted twigsof 17. campestris bear very little resemblance to the prominent wand-likeshoots which stand out thinly over the surface of the heads of youngtrees of U. montana, and all its varieties, or allied species; though in old.trees the branches spread horizontally, and become drooping at their extre-mities. The tufted shoots of U. campestris assume occasionally the characterof knots of entangled cord; and those tufts are called witch knots in someplaces. The character of the foliage is nearly the same in all the kinds ofelm. That of U. campestris is very striking, from the smallness of the leaves,their number, the depth of their green, and their somewhat rounded figure :they remain on, also, till very late in the year. In V. montana, U. m. glabra,U. americana, and in some other kinds, the leaves are large, long, and some-times pointed, with the marginal teeth more obvious, though, perhaps, onlyirom the size of the disk; their green is lighter; and, in general, they falloff much earlier, than those of U. campestris. The different kinds vary, also,considerably in their time of leafing. The leaves of all the sorts have the baseunequal, the margins doubly dentated, and are feather-nerved. The flowersare always protruded before the leaves, and are disposed in small groups,