The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Coritana' was originally claimed by Melville, while he was searching in the neighbourhood of Leicestershire in 1936 for U. elegantissima, as a new species, which he called U. coritana.

He later recorded its distribution in the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk and Warwickshire.

"The species was distinctive," summarized Gerald Wilkinson, "not by its spreading, open crown, but by the bright green, leathery texture and marked asymmetry of its leaves.

[14] Melville named U. coritana after the ancient British tribe, the Coritani, who had occupied part of the territory in which he found the elm.

[15] Like other members of the U. minor group, Melville's 'Coritana' are susceptible to Dutch elm disease, but as they produce abundant root-suckers immature specimens probably survive in their areas of origin.