White elm is known by several names. The color of the bark is responsible for the name gray elm among lumbermen and woodworkers of the Lake States. American elm is a translation of its botanical name, and is neither descriptive nor definitive, because there are other elms as truly American as this one. White elm distinguishes its wood from the redder wood of slippery elm, but it would often be difficult if not impossible to identify the elms, or any one of them, by the color of the wood alone. Some persons who call this elm white doubtless refer to the color of the bark, as is the case with those who speak of it as gray elm. It is known as water elm in several states, but that name is applied indiscriminately to any elm that frequents river banks, as most of them do in some part of their range. It is called rock elm when it is found on stony uplands, and swamp elm on low wet ground. In some parts of the Appalachian mountain ranges it is called astringent elm to distinguish it from slippery elm. White elm surpasses the others in extent of range. Its northern boundary stretches from Newfoundland, across Canada to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of nearly 3,000 miles. It runs south through the Atlantic states to Florida, a distance of 1,200 miles or more. Its southwestern limit is in Texas. The area thus bounded is about 2,500,000 square miles. A few other trees have ranges as large, but none much exceed it. It covers so much of America, and is so important in many parts of its range, that it is clearly the leading elm in this country. It is entitled to first place among elms for other reasons. It is not easy to give any sure features or characteristics by which the layman may always distinguish this elm from others with which it is associated; however, by carefully observing certain features, the identity of white elm is generally easy to establish.