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arboretum of the Experimental Farm. Sargent says that it grows usually on rich limestone hills from southern Michigan to Iowa, central Missouri, and north-eastern Arkansas, and southward to northern Alabama and east Tennessee on the Big Smoky mountains, where it attains a great size. Usually it is from 60 to 70 feet high, with a trunk 2 to 3 feet in diameter; but Ridgway says that four freshly cut trees, in the Wabash valley in Illinois, were 116 to 124 feet high, with clear trunks 51 to 76 feet long, and 2 to 24 feet diameter on the stump. Here it was common in rich hilly woods, but I saw none standing of anything like these dimensions.
The tree was discovered by the elder Michaux in 1795 and introduced? by him into France, and his son speaks of the beautiful stocks that were growing in Europe ; but I have seen none of considerable size, the best perhaps in England being a tree at Tortworth, which was 34 feet by 1 foot 10 inches in November 1905, and reported by Lord Ducie to be growing freely. Michaux says that the wood of this species in the western states is extensively used for waggon-building and wheels, and also for flooring houses; but it does not now seem to be known to English importers. Mr. G. B. Sudworth informs me, however, that this timber is still found in considerable quantity in the Ohio valley, and can be obtained in logs as large as 24 to 30 inches in diameter. He adds that for farm tool handles it is preferred to any other ash on account of its superior strength and elasticity. (H.J.E.)
FRAXINUS AMERICANA, White Ash
- Fraxinus americana, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1057 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. 1232 (1838); Sargent, Silva N. America, vi. 43, tt. 268, 269 (1894), and Trees N. America, 767 (1905).
- Fraxinus alba, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 51 (1785).
- Fraxinus acuminata, Lamarck, Dict. ii. 547 (1786).
- Fraxinus juglandifolia, Lamarck, Dict. ii. 548 (1786).
- Fraxinus epiptera, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 256 (1803).
A large tree, attaining in America 120 feet in height and 15 to 20 feet in girth. Bark deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad flattened scaly ridges. Shoots stout, green, glabrous, with white lenticels. Leaflets (Plate 265, Fig. 21), seven to nine, 4 to 6 inches long, distinctly stalked (the petiolules glabrous and ¼ to ½ inch long), lanceolate or oval, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, acuminate at the apex; entire, crenulate, or coarsely serrate; under surface whitish and pubescent along the midrib and nerves, or in some cases throughout. Rachis of the leaf terete and apparently not grooved on the upper side; but usually a slight groove can be made out on close examination.
Flowers (section Leptalix) dicecious, in glabrous panicles in the axils of the leaf- scars of the preceding year’s shoot; corolla absent. Fruit in crowded clusters, sur- rounded by the persistent calyx at the base, lanceolate or oblong, with a terete rayed oblong body, much shorter than the terminal wing, which is pointed or emarginate at the apex.
1 It was introduced, according to Loudon, into England in 1823.