CHAP. Cl.
OLMa'cETE. U'LMUS.
1407
ramify at the height of 8 ft., 10 ft., or 12 ft.; and their limbs, springing at thesame point, cross each other, and rise with a uniform inclination, so as toform on the summit a sheaf-like head, of regular proportions and admirablebeauty.” (Ibid.) The white elm is a native of North America, from NovaScotia to Georgia, a distance of 1200 miles; but it is found in the greatestperfection in Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia , the north-easternsection of the United States, and Genessee in the state of New York . Thewhite elm delights in low humid situations ; soils such as, in the northern states,are called interval lands. In the middle states, it grows in similar situations,and on the border of swamps. West of the mountains, it abounds in all the fer-tile bottoms watered by the great rivers that swell the Ohio and the Mississippi ,particularly on the brink of the rivers, where its base is inundated at the risingof the waters in the spring. The wood is used for the same purposes as theEuropean elm, but it is decidedly inferior in strength and hardness; it has alsoless compactness, and splits more readily. The bark is said to be easily de-tached during eight months of the year. Soaked in water, and rendered suppleby pounding, it is separated into shreds, or ribands, which are used, in thenorthern states, for weaving into seats for common chairs, as rushes are inEngland. (Michaux.) This tree was introduced into England in 1752, byMr. James Gordon; though, as Martyn observes, no notice is taken of it, orof any other American elm, in the edition of Miller’s Dictionary which waspublished sixteen years afterwards. The three varieties have doubtless existedin the arboretum at Kew, and, probably, in the grounds at Syon ; but they arenot now to be found in either of these collections. The only plants which wehave seen are those in the Horticultural Society’s Garden; where there areseveral from 15 ft. to 30 ft. in height. They bear a general resemblance toV. montana, both in their naked and clothed state; but they are readilydistinguished from that species by the roughness of their bark. The leaves,also, are more pointed, longer in proportion to their breadth, have longer foot-stalks, and are of a finer green. They so closely resemble other trees, marked,in the Horticultural Society’s Garden, U. hispanica, as scarcely, if at all, tobe distinguishable from them. Michaux sent seeds of this elm to France in1807,from which several thousand plants were raised; and of which, according tothe Nouveau Du Hamel, there are very fine specimens at Trianon, where theyare distinguished from all other elms by the superior beauty of their leaves.Cobbett informs us that he imported a quantity of elm seed from the bordersof Lake Ontario , which was gathered from a tree that had a clear straightstem 70 ft. high, before it began to ramify; but that these seeds, from havingbeen put together before they were thoroughly dried, had fermented on thepassage, and not one ever came up. (Woodlands, &. c., p. 241. and 242.) Inthe Edinburgh Botanic Garden, there is a tree which, in 1828, was 25 ft. 6 in.high, with a trunk 7 in. in diameter. Price of plants, in the London nurseries,1*. each; and the weeping variety is 50 cents.
S 10. U. (a.) fu'lva Michx. The tawny -budded, or slippery, Elm.Identification. Michx. FI. Bor. Amer., 1. p. 172.; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 1. p. 200.; Spreng. Syst.
, 1. p. 931.; Rees’s Cyclop., No. 10.; Lodd. Cat. , ed. 1836.
°ynonymes. U. rilbra Michx. Arb., 3. p. 278., and a fig., North Amer. Sylva, 3. p. 89. t. 128.; Ormeg as, breach of Canada and Upper Louisiana ; red Elm, red-wooded Elm, Moose Elm.engravings. Michx. North Amer. Sylva, 3. t. 128.; and our fig. 1247.
Spec. Char., fyc. Resembles the Dutch elm. Branches rough, whitish.Heaves ovate-oblong, acuminate, nearly equal at the base, more or lesscordate there; serrate with unequal teeth, rugose, very rough, hairy onboth surfaces: they are larger, thicker, and rougher than those of U.americana. Leaf buds tomentose, with a tawny dense tomentum : they arelarger and rounder than those of U. americana. Scales of the buds thatinclude the flowers downy. Peduncles of flowers short. Samara not fringed,''Wy like that of U. campestris; orbicular, or, according to the figure inichaux’s North American Sylva, obovate. (Michx., Pursh.) Leaves vari-able hi shape and serratures, but more downy than the other North Arne-
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