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in its upper half, sometimes almost entire; upper surface glabrous; lower surface glandular and glabrous except for some pubescence along the midrib towards the base. Terminal leaflet largest, basal leaflets smallest. Rachis of the leaf with a wide and open shallow groove on its upper side, pubescent in its whole length and bearded at the insertions of the leaflets, the pubescence being continued on the upper side of the petiolules.
Flowers (section Ovzaster) in compact terminal panicles, polygamous, without a corolla; calyx persistent at the base of the samarz, which are long, narrow, and erect on filiform pedicels.
This is the large ash tree? which is common in the mountains about Peking; and it also occurs in the adjacent parts of Mongolia, and in Manchuria and in northern Korea. It was discovered’ by Père D’Incarville in the eighteenth century. Dr. Bretschneider sent seeds to the Arnold Arboretum in 1881, and plants were raised there, which are growing vigorously and promise to become large trees. They had already in 1893 produced flowers and fertile seed.
The species is remarkably distinct, and is very different from F. chinensis, Roxburgh, of which it has been supposed to be a variety. It appears to be scarcely known in Europe, the only specimens which I have seen being from Tortworth, where small plants are reported to be growing badly ; and from Aldenham, where the foliage of a young tree, growing freely, is remarkable for its large size and glossy appearance. (A.H.)
FRAXINUS MANDSHURICA
- Fraxinus mandshurica, Ruprecht, Bull. Phys. Math. Acad, Sc. Pétersb., xv. 371 (1857); Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amurensis, 194, 390 (1859), and Mél. Biol. ix. 395 (1874); Hemsley, Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.), xxvi. 86 (1889); Komarov, Fl. Manshuriæ, iii, 248 (1907).
A large tree, attaining 100 feet in height and 12 feet in girth, with bark like that of the European ash. Branchlets glabrous. Leaflets (Plate 266, Fig. 28), seven to thirteen, 3 to 5 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, sessile, or with very short pubescent stalklets, tapering and unequal at the base, long-acuminate at the apex, sharply and irregularly serrate; glabrescent above; under surface with scattered coarse hairs on the sides of the midrib and lateral nerves. Leaf-rachis, with dense tufts of rusty- brown tomentum at the nodes, winged, the wings meeting above in part of its length, elsewhere deeply grooved.’
Flowers (section Fraxinaster) diœcious, in panicles in the axils of the leaf- scars of the preceding year, without calyx or corolla. Fruit, in loose clusters, oblong-lanceolate, apiculate or emarginate.
1 See Bretschneider, European Bot. Discoveries in China, 53, 336, 1058 (1898). There are two ashes in the Peking mountains, one a large tree, F. rhynchophylia; the other a small shrub, F. Bungeana.
2 The rachis of the uppermost two leaves is usually fringed at its insertion, close to the terminal bud of the branchlet, with rusty-brown pubescence.