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.