1. ULMUS L. Elm.
Trees, or rarely shrubs, with deeply furrowed bark, branchlets often furnished with corky wings, and buds with numerous ovate rounded chestnut-brown scales closely imbricated in two ranks, increasing in size from without inward, the inner accrescent, replacing the stipules of the first leaves, deciduous, marking the base of the branchlet with persistent ring-like scars. Leaves simply or doubly serrate; stipules linear, lanceolate to obovate, entire, free or connate at base, scarious, inclosing the leaf in the bud, caducous. Flowers from axillary buds near the ends of the branches similar to but larger than the leaf-buds, the outer scales sterile, the inner bearing flowers and rarely leaves. Flowers perfect, jointed on slender bibracteolate pedicels from the axils of linear acute scarious bracts, in pedunculate or subsessile fascicles or cymes sometimes becoming racemose, appearing in early spring before the leaves in the axils of those of the previous year, or autumnal in the axils of leaves of the year; calyx campanulate, 5—9-lobed, membranaceous, marcescent; stamens 5 or 6 inserted under the ovary; filaments filiform or slightly flattened, erect in the bud, becoming exserted; anthers oblong, emarginate, and subcordate; ovary sessile or stipitate, compressed, crowned by a simple deeply 2-lobed style, the spreading lobes papillo-stigmatic on the inner face, usually 1-celled by abortion, rarely 2-celled; ovule amphitropous; micropyle extrorse, superior. Fruit an ovoid or oblong, often oblique, sessile or stipitate samara surrounded at base by the remnants of the calyx, the seminal cavity compressed, slightly thickened on the margin, chartaceous, produced into a thin reticulate-venulose membranaceous light brown broad or rarely narrow wing naked or ciliate on the margin, tipped with the remnants of the persistent style, or more or less deeply notched at apex, and often marked by the thickened line of the union of the two carpels. Seed ovoid, compressed, without albumen, marked on the ventral edge by the thin raphe; testa membranaceous, light or dark chestnut-brown, of two coats, rarely produced into a narrow wing; embryo erect; cotyledons flat or slightly convex, much longer than the superior radicle turned toward the oblong linear pale hilum.
Ulmus, with eighteen or twenty species, is widely distributed through the boreal and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere with the exception of western North America, reaching in the New World the mountains of southern Mexico and in the Old World the Sikkim Himalaya, western China, and Japan. Of the exotic species, Ulmus procera Salisb., the so-called English Elm, and Ulmus glabra, Huds., the Scotch Elm, and several of its varieties, have been largely planted for shade and ornament in the north Atlantic states, where old and large specimens of the former can be seen, especially in the neighborhood of Boston.
Ulmus produces heavy, hard, tough, light-colored wood, often difficult to split. The tough inner bark of some of the species is made into ropes or woven into coarse cloth, and in northern China nourishing mucilaginous food is prepared from the inner bark.
Ulmus is the classical name of the Elm-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Flowers vernal, appearing before the leaves. Flowers on slender drooping pedicels; fruit ciliate on the margins. Wing of the fruit broad. Bud-scales and fruit glabrous; branchlets destitute of corky wings; leaves obovate-oblong to elliptic, usually smooth on the upper, soft-pubescent on the lower surface.1. [U. americana] (A, C). Bud-scales puberulous; branches often furnished with corky wings; fruit hirsute; leaves obovate to oblong, smooth on the upper, soft-pubescent on the lower surface.2. [U. racemosa] (A). Wing of the fruit narrow; bud-scales glabrous or slightly puberulous; branchlets usually furnished with broad corky wings; fruit hirsute, leaves ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, smooth on the upper, soft-pubescent on the lower surface.3. [U. alata] (A, C). Flowers on short pedicels; fruit naked on the margins; bud-scales coated with rusty hairs; fruit pubescent; leaves ovate-oblong, scabrous on the upper, pubescent on the lower surface.4. [U. fulva] (A, C). Flowers autumnal, appearing in the axils of leaves of the year; branchlets furnished with corky wings; fruit hirsute. Bud-scales puberulous; flowers on short pedicels; leaves ovate, scabrous on the upper, soft-pubescent on the lower surface.5. [U. crassifolia] (C). Bud-scales glabrous; flowers on long pedicels; leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, acuminate, glabrous on the upper, pale and puberulous on the lower surface.6. [U. serotina] (C).
1. [Ulmus americana] L. White Elm.
Leaves obovate-oblong to elliptic, abruptly narrowed at apex into a long point, full and rounded at base on one side and shorter and cuneate on the other, coarsely doubly serrate with slightly incurved teeth, when they unfold coated below with pale pubescence and pilose above with long scattered white hairs, at maturity 4′—6′ long, 1′—3′ wide, dark green and glabrous or scabrate above, pale and soft-pubescent or sometimes glabrous below, with a narrow pale midrib and numerous slender straight primary veins running to the points of the teeth and connected by fine cross veinlets; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles stout, ¼′ in length; stipules linear-lanceolate, ½′—2′ long. Flowers on long slender drooping pedicels sometimes 1′ in length, in 3 or 4-flowered short-stalked fascicles; calyx irregularly divided into 7—9 rounded lobes ciliate on the margins, often somewhat oblique, puberulous on the outer surface, green tinged with red above the middle; anthers bright red; ovary light green, ciliate on the margins with long white hairs; styles light green. Fruit on long pedicels in crowded clusters, ripening as the leaves unfold, ovoid to obovoid-oblong, slightly stipitate, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, ½′ long, ciliate on the margins, the sharp points of the wings incurved and inclosing the deep notch.
A tree, sometimes 100°—120° high, with a tall trunk 6°—11° in diameter, frequently enlarged at the base by great buttresses, occasionally rising with a straight undivided shaft to the height of 60°—80° and separating into short spreading branches, more commonly divided 30°—40° from the ground into numerous upright limbs gradually spreading and forming an inversely conic round-topped head of long graceful branches, often 100° or rarely 150° in diameter, and slender branchlets frequently fringing the trunk and its principal divisions, light green and coated at first with soft pale pubescence, becoming in their first winter light reddish brown, glabrous or sometimes puberulous and marked by scattered pale lenticels, and by large elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars showing the ends of three large equidistant fibro-vascular bundles, later becoming dark reddish brown and finally ashy gray. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, slightly flattened, about ⅛′ long, with broadly ovate rounded light chestnut-brown glabrous scales, the inner bright green, ovate, acute, becoming on vigorous shoots often nearly 1′ in length. Bark 1′—1½′ thick, ashy gray, divided by deep fissures into broad ridges separating on the surface into thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, tough, difficult to split, coarse-grained, light brown, with thick somewhat lighter colored sapwood; largely used for the hubs of wheels, saddle-trees, in flooring and cooperage, and in boat and shipbuilding.
Distribution. River-bottom lands, intervales, low rich hills, and the banks of streams; southern Newfoundland to the northern shores of Lake Superior and the headwaters of the Saskatchewan, southward to the neighborhood of Lake Istokpoga, De Soto County, Florida, westward in the United States to the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, the Black Hills of South Dakota, western Nebraska, central Kansas and Oklahoma, and the valley of the upper Colorado River (Fort Chadbourne, Coke County), Texas; very common northward, less abundant and of smaller size southward; abundant on the banks of streams flowing through the midcontinental plateau.
Largely planted as an ornamental and shade tree in the northern states, and rarely in western and northern Europe.
2. [Ulmus racemosa] Thomas. Rock Elm. Cork Elm.
Ulmus Thomasii Sarg.
Leaves obovate to oblong-oval, rather abruptly narrowed at apex into a short broad point, equally or somewhat unequally rounded, cuneate or subcordate at base, and coarsely doubly serrate, when they unfold pilose on the upper surface and covered on the lower with soft white hairs, at maturity 2′—2½′ long, ¾′—1′ wide, thick and firm, smooth, dark green and lustrous above, paler and soft-pubescent below, especially on the stout midrib and the numerous straight veins running to the point of the teeth and connected by obscure cross veinlets; turning in the autumn bright clear yellow; petioles pubescent, about ¼′ in length; stipules ovate-lanceolate, conspicuously veined, light green, marked with dark red on the margins above the middle, ⅔′ long, clasping the stem by their abruptly enlarged cordate base conspicuously dentate with 1—3 prominent teeth on each side, falling when the leaves are half grown. Flowers on elongated slender drooping pedicels often ½′ long, in 2—4, usually in 3-flowered, puberulous cymes becoming more or less racemose by the lengthening of the axis of the inflorescence, and when fully grown sometimes 2′ in length; calyx green, divided nearly to the middle into 7 or 8 rounded dark red scarious lobes; anthers dark purple; ovary coated with long pale hairs most abundant on the margins; styles light green. Fruit ripening when the leaves are about half grown, ovoid or obovoid-oblong, ½′ long, with a shallow open notch at the apex, obscurely veined, pale pubescent, ciliate on the slightly thickened border of the broad wing, the margin of the seminal cavity scarcely thickened.
A tree, 80°—100° high, with a trunk occasionally 3° in diameter, and often free of branches for 60°, short stout spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender rigid branchlets, light brown when they first appear, and coated with soft pale pubescence often persistent until their second season, becoming light reddish brown, puberulous or glabrous and lustrous in their first winter, and marked by scattered oblong lenticels and large orbicular or semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying an irregular row of 4—6 fibro-vascular bundle-scars, ultimately dark brown or ashy gray, and usually furnished with 3 or 4 thick corky irregular wings often ½′ broad, and beginning to appear in their first or more often during their second year. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ¼′ long, with broadly ovate rounded chestnut-brown scales pilose on the outer surface, ciliate on the margins, the inner scales becoming ovate-oblong to lanceolate, and ½′ long, often dentate at the base, with 1 or 2 minute teeth on each side, bright green below the middle, marked with a red blotch above, and white and scarious at the apex. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, gray tinged with red, and deeply divided by wide irregular interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges broken on the surface into large irregularly shaped scales. Wood heavy, hard, very strong and tough, close-grained, light clear brown often tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood; largely employed in the manufacture of many agricultural implements, for the framework of chairs, hubs of wheels, railway-ties, the sills of buildings, and other purposes demanding toughness, solidity and flexibility.
Distribution. Dry gravelly uplands, low heavy clay soils, rocky slopes and river cliffs; Province of Quebec westward through Ontario, the southern peninsula of Michigan and central Wisconsin to northeastern Nebraska, western Missouri and eastern Kansas, and southward to northern New Hampshire, southern Vermont, western New York, (valley of the Genesee River), northern New Jersey, southern Ohio (near Columbus, Franklin County), and central Indiana; rare in the east and toward the extreme western and southern limits of its range.
Occasionally planted as a shade and ornamental tree in the northern states.
3. [Ulmus alata] Michx. Wahoo. Winged Elm.
Leaves ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, often somewhat falcate, acute or acuminate, unequally cuneate or rounded or subcordate at base, and coarsely doubly serrate with incurved teeth, when they unfold pale green often tinged with red, coated on the lower surface with soft white pubescence and glabrous or nearly so on the upper surface, at maturity thick and firm or subcoriaceous, dark green and smooth above, pale and soft-pubescent below, especially on the stout yellow midrib and numerous straight prominent veins often forked near the margins of the leaf and connected by rather conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning yellow in the autumn; their petioles stout, pubescent, ⅓′ in length; stipules linear-obovate, thin and scarious, tinged with red above the middle, often nearly 1′ long. Flowers on drooping pedicels, in short few-flowered fascicles; calyx glabrous and divided nearly to the middle into 5 broad ovate rounded lobes as long as the hoary-tomentose ovary raised on a short slender stipe. Fruit ripening before or with the unfolding of the leaves, oblong, ⅓′ in length, contracted at base into a long slender stalk, gradually narrowed and tipped at apex with long incurved awns, and covered with long white hairs most numerous on the thickened margin of the narrow wing; seed ovoid, pointed, ⅛′ long, pale, chestnut-brown, slightly thickened into a narrow wing-like margin.
A tree, occasionally 80°—100° but usually not more than 40°—50° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, short stout straight or erect branches forming a narrow oblong rather open round-topped head, and slender branchlets glabrous or puberulous and light green tinged with red when they first appear, becoming light reddish brown or ashy gray and glabrous, or on vigorous individuals frequently pilose in their first winter, marked by occasional small orange-colored lenticels and by small elevated horizontal semiorbicular leaf-scars, sometimes naked, more often furnished with usually 2 thin corky wings beginning to grow during their first or more often during their second season, abruptly arrested at the nodes, often ½′ wide, and persistent for many years. Winter-buds slender, acute, ⅛′ long, dark chestnut-brown, with glabrous or puberulous scales, those of the inner ranks becoming oblong or obovate, rounded and tipped with a minute mucro, thin and scarious, light red, especially above the middle, and ½′ long. Bark rarely exceeding ¼′ in thickness, light brown tinged with red, and divided by irregular shallow fissures into flat ridges covered by small closely appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, close-grained, difficult to split, light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood; sometimes employed for the hubs of wheels and the handles of tools. Ropes used for fastening the covers of cotton bales are sometimes made from the inner bark.
Distribution. Usually on dry gravelly uplands, less commonly in alluvial soil on the borders of swamps and the banks of streams, and occasionally in inundated swamps; southeastern Virginia, southwestern Indiana, southern Illinois (Richland and Johnson Counties) and southern Missouri, and southward to central Florida (Lake County), and the valley of the Guadalupe River, Texas; ranging westward in Oklahoma to Garfield County (near Kingfisher, G. W. Stevens).
Often planted as a shade-tree in the streets of towns and villages of the southern states.
4. [Ulmus fulva] Michx. Slippery Elm. Red Elm.
Leaves ovate-oblong, abruptly contracted into a long slender point, rounded at base on one side and short-oblique on the other, and coarsely doubly serrate with incurved callous-tipped teeth, when they unfold thin, coated below with pale pubescence, pilose above with scattered white hairs, at maturity thick and firm, dark green and rugose with crowded sharp-pointed tubercles pointing toward the apex of the leaf above, soft, smooth, and coated below, especially on the thin midrib and in the axils of the slender straight veins with white hairs, 5′—7′ long, 2′—3′ wide; turning a dull yellow color in the autumn; petioles stout, pubescent, ⅓′ in length; stipules obovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, thin and scarious, pale-pubescent, and tipped with clusters of rusty brown hairs. Flowers on short pedicels, in crowded fascicles; calyx green, covered with pale hairs, divided into 5—9 short rounded thin equal lobes; stamens with slender light yellow slightly flattened filaments and dark red anthers; stigmas slightly exserted, reddish purple, papillose with soft white hairs. Fruit ripening when the leaves are about half grown, semiorbicular, rounded and bearing the remnants of the styles or slightly emarginate at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, ½′ broad, the seminal cavity coated with thick rusty brown tomentum, the broad thin wing obscurely reticulate-veined, naked on the thickened margin, and marked by the dark conspicuous horizontal line of union of the two carpels; seed ovoid, with a large oblique pale hilum, a light chestnut-brown coat produced into a thin border wider below than above the middle of the seed.
A tree, 60°—70° high, with a trunk occasionally 2° in diameter, spreading branches forming a broad open flat-topped head, and stout branchlets bright green, scabrate, and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, becoming light brown by midsummer, often roughened by small pale lenticels, and in their first winter ashy gray, orange color or light red-brown, and marked by large elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars showing the ends of 3 conspicuous equidistant fibro-vascular bundles, ultimately dark gray or brown. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, ¼′ long, with about 12 scales, the outer broadly ovate, rounded, dark chestnut-brown, and covered by long scattered rusty hairs, the inner when fully grown ½′ long, ⅛′—¼′ wide, light green, strap-shaped, rounded and tipped at the apex with tufts of rusty hairs, puberulous on the outer surface, slightly ciliate on the margins, gradually growing narrower and passing into the stipules of the upper leaves. Bark frequently 1′ thick, dark brown tinged with red, divided by shallow fissures and covered by large thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, very close-grained, durable, easy to split, dark brown or red, with thin lighter colored sapwood; largely used for fence-posts, railway-ties, the sills of buildings, the hubs of wheels, and in agricultural implements. The thick fragrant inner bark is mucilaginous and demulcent, and is employed in the treatment of acute febrile and inflammatory affections.
Distribution. Banks of streams and low rocky hillsides in deep rich soil; comparatively common in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, Province of Quebec, and through Ontario to northern and eastern South Dakota, northeastern and eastern Nebraska, southeastern Kansas, and Oklahoma to the valley of the Canadian River (McClain County), and southward to western Florida, central Alabama and Mississippi, western Louisiana and the valley of the upper Guadalupe (Kerr County) and Leon Rivers (Comal County), Texas; in the South Atlantic states not common and mostly confined to the middle districts, ascending to altitudes of 2000° on the southern Appalachian foothills.
5. [Ulmus crassifolia] Nutt. Cedar Elm.
Leaves elliptic to ovate, acute or rounded at apex, unequally rounded or cuneate and often oblique at base, coarsely and unequally doubly serrate with callous-tipped teeth, when they unfold thin, light green tinged with red, pilose above and covered below with soft pale pubescence, at maturity thick and subcoriaceous, dark green, lustrous and roughened by crowded minute sharp-pointed tubercles on the upper surface and soft pubescent on the lower surface, 1′—2′ long, ½′—1′ wide, with a stout yellow midrib, and prominent straight veins connected by conspicuous more or less reticulate cross veinlets; usually turning bright yellow late in the autumn; petioles stout, tomentose, ¼′—½′ in length; stipules ½′ long, linear-lanceolate, red and scarious above, clasping the stem by their green and hairy bases, deciduous when the leaves are about half grown. Flowers usually opening in August and sometimes also in October, on slender pedicels ⅓′—½′ long and covered with white hairs, in 3—5-flowered pedunculate fascicles; calyx divided to below the middle into oblong pointed lobes hairy at base; ovary hirsute, crowned with two short slightly exserted stigmas. Fruit ripening in September and rarely also in November, oblong, gradually and often irregularly narrowed from the middle to the ends, short-stalked, deeply notched at apex, ⅓′ to nearly ½′ long, covered with soft white hairs, most abundant on the slightly thickened margin of the broad wing; seed oblique, pointed, and covered by a dark chestnut-brown coat.
A tree, often 80° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, sometimes free of branches for 30° or 40°, divided into numerous stout spreading limbs forming a broad inversely conic round-topped head of long pendulous branches, or while young or on dry uplands a compact round head of drooping branches, and slender branchlets, tinged with red and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, becoming light reddish brown, puberulous and marked by scattered minute lenticels and by small elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars showing the ends of 3 small fibro-vascular bundles, and furnished with 2 corky wings covered with lustrous brown bark, about ¼′ broad and continuous except when abruptly interrupted by lateral branchlets, or often irregularly developed. Winter-buds broadly ovoid, acute, ⅛′ long, with closely imbricated chestnut-brown scales slightly puberulous on the outer surface, those of the inner ranks at maturity oblong, concave, rounded at apex, thin, bright red, sometimes ¾′ long. Bark sometimes nearly 1′ thick, light brown slightly tinged with red, and deeply divided by interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges broken on the surface into thick scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, brittle, light brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood; in central Texas used in the manufacture of the hubs of wheels, for furniture, and largely for fencing.
Distribution. Valley of the Sunflower River, Mississippi (Morehead, Sunflower County), through southern Arkansas, and Texas to Nuevo Leon, ranging in western Texas from the coast to the valley of the Pecos River; in Arkansas usually on river cliffs and low hillsides, and in Texas near streams in deep alluvial soil and on dry limestone hills; the common Elm-tree of Texas and of its largest size on the bottom-lands of the Guadalupe and Trinity Rivers.
Occasionally planted as a shade-tree in the streets of the cities and towns of Texas.
6. [Ulmus serotina] Sarg. Red Elm.
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, acuminate, very oblique at base, coarsely and doubly crenulate-serrate, when they unfold coated below with shining white hairs and puberulous above, at maturity thin and firm in texture, yellow-green, glabrous and lustrous on the upper surface, pale and puberulous on the midrib and principal veins below, 2′—4′ long, 1′—1¾′ wide, with a prominent yellow midrib, about 20 pairs of primary veins extending obliquely to the points of the teeth and often forked near the margins of the leaf, and numerous reticular veinlets; turning clear orange-yellow in the autumn; petioles stout, about ¼′ in length; stipules abruptly narrowed from broad clasping bases, linear-lanceolate, usually about ¼′ long, persistent until the leaves are nearly fully grown. Flowers opening in September on slender conspicuously jointed pedicels often ⅛′ long, in many-flowered glabrous racemes from 1′—1½′ in length; calyx 6-parted to the base, with oblong-obovate red-brown divisions rounded at apex; ovary sessile, narrowed below, villose. Fruit ripening early in November, stipitate, oblong-elliptic, deeply divided at apex, fringed on the margins with long silvery white hairs, about ½′ long.
A tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, comparatively small spreading or pendulous branches often forming a broad handsome head, and slender pendulous branchlets glabrous or occasionally puberulous when they first appear, brown, lustrous, and marked by occasional oblong white lenticels during their first year, becoming darker the following season and ultimately dark gray-brown, and often furnished with 2 or 3 thick corky wings developed during their second or third years. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ¼′ long, their outer scales oblong-obovate, dark chestnut-brown, glabrous, the inner often scarious on the margins, pale yellow-green, lustrous and sometimes ¾′ long when fully grown. Bark ¼′—⅜′ thick, light brown slightly tinged with red, and divided by shallow fissures into broad flat ridges broken on the surface into large thin closely appressed scales. Wood hard, close-grained, very strong and tough, light red-brown, with pale yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Limestone hills and river banks; rare and local; eastern (near Pikeville, Pike County) and southern Kentucky (Bowling Green, Warren County); banks of the Cumberland River, near Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee; northeastern Georgia (cliffs of the Coosa River, near Rome, Floyd County); northern Alabama (Madison, Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties); valley of the Arkansas River (near Van Buren, Crawford County, G. M. Brown) and northwestern Arkansas (Sulphur Springs, Benton County, and Boston Mountains near Jasper, Newton County, E. J. Palmer); eastern Oklahoma (near Muskogee, Muskogee County, B. H. Slavin); southwestern (Grand Tower, Jackson County, H. A. Gleason) and southern Illinois (Richland County, R. Ridgway).
Occasionally planted as a shade-tree in the streets of cities in northern Georgia and northern Alabama; hardy in Eastern Massachusetts.