This tree is important for the lumber it produces. It is the common and most abundant elm of Texas, and it is found in a large part of that state. The wood is the weakest of the elms, and is likewise quite brittle; but in the region where it is most abundant it compares favorably with any other. The best is cut from the largest trees, which grow in valleys where moisture is abundant. The growth found on the dry hills is of poor quality, and is worth little, even for fuel. The highest development in Texas, and also the highest in the species’ range, is in the valleys of Trinity and Guadalupe rivers. In Texas this wood is employed in furniture factories as inside frames, to be covered by other woods, but it is not employed as outside parts of furniture, unless in very cheap kinds. It is suitable for drain boards and floors of refrigerators where it is wet much of the time. Under such circumstances it is more easily kept clean than most other woods. It whitens with repeated scrubbings. One of its most common uses in Texas is for wagon hubs. Some wheelwrights pronounce it next to the best native wood for that purpose, the first place being accorded Osage orange. The tree is often planted for shade along the streets of Texas towns, and develops thick crowns and satisfactory forms. RED ELM (_Ulmus serotina_) is a lately discovered member of the elm family. It so closely resembles the cork elm that it was supposed to be of the same species, and the close scrutiny of a botanist was required to discover that it was a separate species. Sargent observed the flowers opening in September while those of cork elm appear in early spring. The seeds ripen in November, while cork elm’s are ripe early in the summer. The tree was named red elm, the wood being reddish-brown. That name is widely applied to slippery elm, but it is improbable that much confusion will result. The red elm’s range is quite restricted and in that area the slippery elm is not important. Red elm occurs on limestone hills and river banks from central Kentucky to northern Georgia and Alabama. It attains a height of fifty or sixty feet and a diameter of two or three. The leaves are from two to four inches in length, and one or two wide, with margins toothed like the other elms. The midrib is yellow, and in the autumn the leaves change to an orange yellow before falling. Branches which are two or three years old develop corky wings, two or three in number.