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cotyledons, when developed, are about ¾ to 1½ inch long, oblong, obtuse, entire, glabrous, pale beneath, tapering at the base into a very short winged petiole. Caulicle terete, I to 3 inches long, ending in a long yellow, fleshy, flexuose tap-root. Young stem, green and glabrous, terete below, angled above. First pair of leaves, arising ¼ to 1 inch above the cotyledons, simple, ovate, acuminate or acute, irregularly serrate and ciliate, minutely pubescent, on a winged petiole about ½ inch long. Second pair of leaves, three-foliolate, on a petiole about an inch long, the terminal leaflet the largest. Third pair with either three or five leaflets.

The common ash is only liable to be confused with species like F. angustifolia and F. oxycarpa; but is readily distinguished by its black buds, and the crenate serrations more numerous than the lateral nerves in the leaflets.

In winter, the twigs are stout, shining-grey or olive green, compressed towards the tip, swollen at the nodes. Leaf-scars, opposite, obliquely set on projecting pulvini, semicircular or almost orbicular, often with lateral projecting horns, and showing an almost circular row of bundle-dots. Terminal buds black, conical, quadrate, with four scales visible externally, but consisting altogether of seven to eight pairs of scales. Lateral buds smaller, given off at a wide angle, with two or three external scales,

The common ash, though distributed over a wide area, varies little in the wild state; and such varieties, as have been based on the form of the fruit, cannot be considered as well established. Near Perpignan a form with small leaves has been collected, which is var. austvafis, Godron et Grenier, Flore de France, ii. 471. In the province of Talysch in the Caucasus, a remarkable form occurs with large leaflets, velvety pubescent underneath; and the shoots, buds, and leaf-rachis are densely pubescent. This variety, which was described by Scheele’ as a distinct species (F. coriarœfolia), is said by Koch® to be met with occasionally in cultivation in gardens, where it is known as Fraxinus expansa.

A curious variation in the common ash was observed by A.D. Richardson ® in the case of four young plants, found growing in a clump of several hundreds, on the banks of the Boyne near Navan in Co. Meath. The leader shoots had the leaves alternate in a 2/5 spiral arrangement, instead of the normal opposite and decussate one.

Numerous varieties have been obtained as seedlings in nurseries or as isolated specimens growing wild.

1 Linnæa, xvii. 350 (1843).

2 Dendrologie, ii. 1, 243 (1872).

3 Gard. Chron. xxxvi. 133, fig. 55 (1904).