- 2. Celtis glabrata, Steven. Asia Minor, Caucasus. See p. 929.
- Leaves bluish green, serrate except near the base, acute or very shortly acuminate, conspicuously punctate when viewed with a lens.
** Leaves pubescent.
- 3. Celtis occidentalis, Linnæus. North America. See p. 930.
- Leaves caudate-acuminate, serrate in the upper half or two-thirds, smooth to the touch above, pubescent on the nerves beneath.
- 4. Celtis crassifolia, Lamarck. North America. See p. 932.
- Leaves shortly acuminate, serrate in the upper half or two-thirds, scabrous to the touch above, pubescent on the nerves beneath.
II. Leaves lanceolate.
* Leaves usually entire.
- 5. Celtis mississippiensis, Bosc. North America. See p. 933.
- Leaves, entire in margin, rarely dentate at the apex, glabrous except for axil tufts at the base beneath.
** Leaves serrate.
- 6. Celtis australis, Linnæus, Southern Europe, North Africa, Caucasus. See below.
- Leaves caudate-acuminate, covered beneath throughout with a soft pubescence.
- 7. Celtis caucasica, Willdenow. Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, N. India. See p. 928.
- Leaves shortly acuminate, pubescent beneath only on the midrib and nerves.
(A.H.)
CELTIS AUSTRALIS, Nettle Tree
- Celtis australis, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1043 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1414 (1838); Planchon in DC. Prodr. xvii. 169 (1873); Boissier, Fl. Orientalis, iv. 1156 (1879); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 545 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 293 (1897).
A tree, usually attaining 50 to 70 feet in height, and 1o feet in girth, but in rare cases becoming as much as 20 feet in girth. Bark thin, greyish, smooth, somewhat resembling that of the beech, but on old trunks sometimes covered with warty excrescences. Young branchlets pubescent. Leaves (Plate 267, Fig. 5), about 4 inches long by 1¼ inch broad, oval-lanceolate, unequal and cuneate at the base, con- tracted above into a very long caudate-acuminate apex, serrate except near the base ; upper surface dark green, scabrous, shortly-pubescent ; lower surface greyish, covered with a soft tomentum ; petiole greyish-tomentose, about } inch long. Fruit globose, up to ½ inch in diameter, at first whitish, then red, and finally dark-brown ; with a scanty sweetish flesh. Fruit pedicel, very slender, an inch or more in length. The seedling’ is similar to that of C. occidentalis ; but the cotyledons are wider, rhomboidal in shape, and with a shallower emargination ; and the primary leaves are longer, narrower, and more acuminate. The seedling attains about 8 inches in height in the first year.
1 Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 495 (1892).
