Part 52

=Fruit.=--Ripening in early fall, and hanging in clusters into the winter; a samara or key 1-2 inches long, body nearly terete, marginless below, dilating from near the tip into a wing two or three times as long as the body.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers a rich, moist, loamy soil, but grows in any well-drained situation; easily transplanted, usually obtainable in nurseries, and can be collected successfully. It is one of the most desirable native trees for landscape and street plantations, on account of its rapid and clean growth, freedom from disease, moderate shade, and richly colored autumn foliage. As the leaves appear late in spring and fall early in autumn, it is desirable to plant with other trees of different habit. Propagated from seed.

1. Winter buds. 2. Branch with sterile flowers. 3. Sterile flowers. 4. Branch with fertile flowers. 5. Fertile flower. 6. Fruiting branch.

=Fraxinus Pennsylvanica, Marsh.=

Fraxinus pubescens, Lam.

RED ASH. BROWN ASH. RIVER ASH.

=Habitat and Range.=--River banks, swampy lowlands, margins of streams and ponds.

New Brunswick to Manitoba.

Maine,--infrequent; New Hampshire,--occasional, extending as far north as Boscawen in the Merrimac valley; Vermont,--common along Lake Champlain and its tributaries (Flora of Vermont, 1900); occasional in other sections; Massachusetts and Rhode Island,--sparingly scattered throughout; Connecticut,--reported from East Hartford, Westville, Canaan, and Lisbon (J. N. Bishop).

South to Florida and Alabama; west to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.

=Habit.=--Medium-sized to large tree, 30-70 feet high, with trunk 1-3 feet in diameter; erect, branches spreading, broad-headed; in general appearance resembling the white ash.

=Bark.=--Trunk dark gray or brown, smooth in young trees, furrowed in old, furrows rather shallower than in the white ash; branches grayish; young shoots greenish-gray with a rusty-velvety or scurfy pubescence lasting often into the second year.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds rounded, dark reddish-brown, more or less downy, smaller than those of the white ash, partially covered by the swollen petiole. Leaves pinnately compound, opposite, 9-15 inches long; petiole short, downy, enlarged at base; leaflets 7-9, opposite, 3-5 inches long, about one half as wide, light green and smooth above, paler and more or less downy beneath; outline extremely variable, ovate, narrow-oblong, elliptical or sometimes obovate, entire or slightly toothed; apex acute to acuminate; base acute or rounded; leaflet stalks short, grooved, downy; stipules and stipels none.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Similar to that of the white ash.

=Fruit.=--Ripening in early fall, and hanging in clusters into the winter; samara or key about 1-1/2 inches long; body of the fruit narrowly cylindrical, the edges gradually widening from about the center into linear or spatulate wings, obtuse or rounded at the ends, sometimes mucronate.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows readily in any good soil, but prefers a wet or moist, rich loam; almost as rapid growing when young as the white ash, and is not seriously affected by insects or fungous diseases; worthy of a place in landscape plantations and on streets, but not often found in nurseries; propagated from seed.

1. Winter buds. 2. Branch with sterile flowers. 3. Sterile flowers. 4. Branch with fertile flowers. 5. Fertile flower. 6. Fruiting branch. 7. Mature leaf.

=Fraxinus Pennsylvanica, var. lanceolata, Sarg.=

Fraxinus viridis, Michx. f. Fraxinus lanceolata, Borkh.

GREEN ASH.

River valleys and wet woods.

Ontario to Saskatchewan.

Maine,--common along the Penobscot river from Oldtown to Bangor; Vermont,--along Lake Champlain; Gardner's island, and the north end of South Hero; Rhode Island (Bailey); Connecticut,--frequent (J. N. Bishop, Report of Connecticut Board of Agriculture, 1895).

South along the mountains to Florida; west to the Rocky mountains.

The claims to specific distinction rest mainly upon the usual absence of pubescence from the young shoots, leaves and petioles, the color of the leaves (which is bright green above and scarcely less so beneath), the usually more distinct serratures above the center, and a rather more acuminate apex.

Apparently an extreme form of F. pubescens, connected with it by numerous intermediate forms through the entire range of the species.

1. Winter buds. 2. Fruiting branch.

=Fraxinus nigra, Marsh.=