The range of this famous American shade tree extends west to the Dakotas and southward to Coke County, Texas. Within this vast area, it is generally common except in the high mountains and wet bottomlands. It reaches an average height of 60 feet and a diameter of 3 feet. The BARK is dark gray, divided into irregular flat-topped, thick ridges, and is generally firm. An incision into an outer ridge of bark will show alternate brown and cream colored layers. A cross section of slippery elm bark is uniformly cream or tan colored. [Illustration: AMERICAN ELM (Twig, one-half natural size; leaf and fruit, one-third natural size)] The LEAVES are alternate, simple, 4 to 6 inches long, rather thick, somewhat lopsided, double toothed on the margin, and either smooth or scabrous above and soft pubescent or glabrate below. The leaf veins are very pronounced and run in parallel lines from the midrib to the leaf margin. The FLOWERS are small, perfect, greenish, on slender pedicels, soon pendulous, and appear before the leaves. The FRUIT ripens in the spring and is a light green, oval-shaped samara (winged fruit) with the seed portion in the center and surrounded entirely by a wing. A deep notch in the end of the wing is distinctive of the species. The WOOD is heavy, hard, strong, tough, and difficult to split. It is used for hubs of wheels, saddle trees, veneer for baskets and crates, and slack cooperage. American elm is rapidly being destroyed in the East and Midwest by the Dutch elm disease and by phloem necrosis. WINGED ELM Ulmus alata Michx. Winged elm gets its common name from the thin corky growth or “wings”, usually found on smaller branches. These “wings” generally end abruptly at the leaf nodes as contrasted by the cedar elm (p. 63) whose “wings” are generally continuous. On large rapidly growing trees the wings are often absent. It occurs in eastern Texas south to the valley of the Guadalupe River, on dry uplands, and in moist soils along streams and swamps. It grows rapidly in moist situations, and may also be planted along roadsides in relatively dry, poor locations. It is comparatively free from disease, though not long-lived. Winged elm is a medium-sized tree 40 to 50 feet in height and rarely as large as 2 feet in diameter. It forms a rather open, round-topped head. [Illustration: WINGED ELM (Leaf and fruit, one-third natural size; twig, one-half natural size)] The BARK is light brown tinged with red, and divided by irregular shallow fissures into flat ridges. The LEAVES are simple alternate, 2 to 4 inches long and 1 to 2 inches broad, coarsely double-toothed, thick, dark green and smooth above, and pale and pale-pubescent or glabrous below with auxiliary hairs and prominent veins. The leaves are small and pointed at the tip, which distinguishes them from the small blunt leaves of the cedar elm.