ABNORMAL FRUITING OF THE COMMON ELM. 79
proved by Miss Rosling's statement that, earlier in the year,
she had seen some of them with the samara still attached.
I exhibit some of the seedlings I gathered at the place and
on the date indicated.
The same fact was observed also by Mr. Reginald Christy,
of Boyton Hall, who wrote me recently as follows:—
"There are, as you know, many large elms growing round the house here,
but I am not aware that, until this year, X have ever seen a seedling elm. Yet
FIG. I.—ELM SEEDLINGS FROM ROXWELL, ESSEX, SEPTEMBER 1909),
this spring, the elms not only fruited very abundantly here, but the fruit was
all fertile; and, during June and July, it came up, not only in the greenhouse
(through the open lights of which it was blown by the wind), but all over the
ground everywhere. Seedling elms sprang up, in fact, all over the garden, both
in flower-pots, flower-beds, and wherever else the seeds happened to lodge.
They all seemed very thrifty. Elsewhere, I had an area of half-an-acre of land
completely carpeted with young seedling elms. I enclose a bunch [fig. 1], just
as I pulled it out of the ground, which is now ploughed. They are somewhat
small and stunted, as they grew so closely together. It may be worth noting