Ulmus × hollandica 'Smithii'

The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Smithii', commonly known as the Downton Elm,[1] was one of a number of cultivars arising from the crossing of the Wych Elm U. glabra with the Field Elm U. minor. The tree was originally planted at Downton Castle near Ludlow, as one of a batch, not all of them pendulous in habit, raised at Smith's Nursery, Worcester, England, from seeds obtained from a tree in Nottingham in 1810.[2]

Ulmus × hollandica 'Smithii'
Leaf of 'Smithii'
Hybrid parentageU. glabra × U. minor
Cultivar'Smithii'
OriginNottingham, England

'Smithii' or 'Downton Elm' is absent from Smith's 1887–88 catalogue, which contains 23 elms, unless it is one listed as 'Weeping English Elm'.[3]

Description

'Smithii' made a small to medium-sized tree,[4] with ascending branches bearing long pendulous shoots, downy when young and developing corky ridges.[5] The oval leaves are dark green, glabrous and glossy above, < 8.5 cm long by 4.0 cm wide, downy beneath, and long acuminate at the apex. Bean described them as "coarsely double-toothed", with 14–16 pairs of lateral veins, and a petiole about 0.75 inches (19 mm) long.[6][5][4]

Cultivation

'Smithii' was grown at the Royal Victoria Park, Bath in the mid-19th century, where it was distinguished from the similar-looking Scampston Elm by its larger leaf,[7] at Kew Gardens, where there were two specimens in 1912, of 35 ft (11 m) and 25 ft (7.6 m), at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Ireland, before the First World War,[2] and in the parkland of Westonbirt House, Gloucestershire, 60 feet (18 m) high and 5 feet (1.5 m) in girth by the 1920s.[8] Two trees said to be Downton Elm supplied by the Mount Hope Nursery (also known as the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery) of Rochester, New York, and planted c.1855, stood in that city for almost a century, one by the house of Edward Bausch, the other in the grounds of the John Williams School. The former was described in 1953 as "a superb tree, upwards of 75 feet in height", "a typical specimen with the characteristic long drooping branches". They were successful cloned in 1949, but it is not known whether the scions survive.[9]

In 1955 Melville queried one of the two 'Smithii' at Kew. The "slightly pendulous" no. 69, 60-ft by then, sourced from Darley Dale, Derbyshire, in 1888, was, he noted, "different from the tree Downton Elm, Ulmus vegeta pendula, no. 101".[10] The 1955 nos. 69 and 101 may have been the two 'Smithii' referred to by Henry in 1912. The leaves of no. 69 appear similar to early 20th-century herbarium specimens at Kew and Glasnevin labelled 'Smithii' (see 'External Links'); Melville's specimen of no. 101[11] is held at Kew, as U. × hollandica nm. 'Smithii' Henry. There was, however, a James Smith nursery at Darley Dale[12] that supplied trees to Kew,[13] raising the possibility, as Melville suggested, that the Darley Dale 'Smithii' was not the Downton Elm of Smith's of Worcester.

Many 19th-century elms described in Elwes and Henry (1913) were excluded from standard 20th-century works such as those of Bean and Hillier, presumably as too rare, yet 'Smithii' continued to feature in later editions, suggesting it was an elm readers were likely to encounter in collections.[14][15] The tree was propagated and marketed in the UK by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire, from 1962 to 1977, during which time just 27 were sold.[16][17] However, no captioned photographs nor verified survivors are known.

The Direction des Espaces Verts et de l'Environnement (DEVE) - Ville de Paris lists a 'Smithii' at the Square Louise-Michel, Paris (1990).[18]

The 'Downton Elm' described in Boot's Familiar Trees (1888) appears to have been confused with a form of weeping wych.[19]

Putative specimen

A pruned U. × hollandica with leaves that match 'Smithii' herbarium specimens from Glasnevin and Kew (see External Links) forms part of an avenue in Eaton Road, Hove.

  • Eaton Rd elm, Hove
    Eaton Rd elm, Hove
  • Pendulous shoots of same
    Pendulous shoots of same
  • Foliage of same
    Foliage of same

Synonymy
  • Ulmus campestris pendula.[20]
  • Ulmus campestris 'Pendula'.[21]
  • Ulmus hollandica var. pendula.[22]
  • Ulmus glabra var. pendula.[23]
  • Ulmus montana var. Smithii Hort.: Kew
  • Ulmus Smithii Henry.[2]

References
  1. Knight, Thomas Andrew (1824). "Notice of a new variety of Ulmus suberosa". Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. 5: 146–148. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  2. Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. 7. pp. 1868–1869.
  3. 'Standard Ornamental Trees' in Forest, hardy ornamental trees, conifers, etc., Richard Smith & Co., Worcester, 1887–88, p.27
  4. The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs (6 ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. 1994. p. 510. ISBN 071539942X.
  5. Bean, William Jackson (1988). Trees and shrubs hardy in Great Britain (8 ed.). London: Murray. p. 659.
  6. Green, Peter Shaw (1964). "Registration of cultivar names in Ulmus". Arnoldia. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 24 (6–8): 41–80. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  7. Hanham, F. (1857). A Manual for the Park (Royal Victoria Park, Bath). Longman, London.
  8. Jackson, A. Bruce (1927). Catalogue of the Trees & Shrubs [at Westonbirt] in the Collection of the Late Lieut-Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford. London. p. 195.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. Williams, John (October 1953). "Edward Bausch and the Downton Elm". Bulletin of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences. 26 (8): 126–127.
  10. bioportal.naturalis.nl, specimen L.1587059
  11. Kew Plants of the World Online: ' Ulmus × hollandica Mill. Images'; Kew specimen 101: Image 35 of 52; ID:1128168; powo.science.kew.org
  12. Desmond, Ray, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists, including Plant Collectors and Botanical Artists (London 1977), p.634
  13. Elwes, Henry John; Henry, Augustine (1913). The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland. 7. p.1895
  14. Hilliers' Manual of Trees & Shrubs (Newton Abbot 1977)
  15. Bean, W. J., Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain (London 1988)
  16. Hillier & Sons (1977). Catalogue of Trees & Shrubs. Hillier, Ampfield, UK.
  17. Hillier & Sons Sales inventory 1962 to 1977 (unpublished).
  18. Open Data Paris — Les arbres: Open Data Paris — Les arbres, accessdate: August 24, 2016
  19. Boot, William Henry James, Familiar Trees, London 1888, p.141
  20. Masters, W. (1831). Hortus Duroverni: Or, A Tabular and Descriptive Catalogue of Perennial Flower Roots, &c. Sold by W. Masters. p. 66. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  21. Krüssmann, Johann Gerd (1962). Handbuch der Laubgehölze. Vol. 2. p. 537.
  22. Rehder, Alfred (1915). "Neue oder kritische Gehölze". Mitteilungen der Deutschen Dendrologischen Gesellschaft. 24: 217. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  23. Loudon, John Claudius (1838). Arboretum et fruticetum Britannicum. Vol. 3. p. 1405.
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