Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/311

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Fraxinus
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apex; coarsely serrate in the upper half or two-thirds, but sometimes entire, ciliate ; upper surface pubescent; lower surface densely white pubescent. Rachis of the leaf white pubescent and deeply grooved on its upper side.

Flowers (section Leptalix) dicecious in short panicles in the axils of the leaf- scars of the preceding year’s shoot ; calyx present and persisting under the fruit ; corolla absent. Fruit spatulate, with terete body and terminal wing.

This species is readily distinguished by the dense white pubescence over the shoot, leaf-rachis, and leaflets, the latter being variable in number and smaller than those of the other pubescent ashes, except F. xanthoxyloides, which has still smaller leaflets with a broadly winged rachis and is much less strongly pubescent.

Fraxinus velutina occurs usually in elevated cañons beside streams in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern Nevada, and south-east California.

Young trees are doing well at Kew, where they are of considerable interest from their peculiar foliage, which gives them a neat and elegant appearance. The oldest, planted in 1891, are now about 15 feet high. (A.H.)

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