STRUCTURE AND HISTORY ОЕ PLAV. 283 
APPENDIX E. 
FRAXINUS, sp. n. 
The two districts of the area under consideration in which ash-trees occur are 
the “grinds” of Letei and Caraorman (see р. 275). They grow rather sparsely, 
forming, with other trees, a semi-woodland. Some of them are referable to 
Е. owycurpa, Willd. [Elwes and Henry, * The Trees of Great Britain and 
Ireland,” iv. р. 882 (1909) ; Schneider, Handb. d. Laubholzkunde, ii. p. 833 
(1912)] ; others are absolutely glabrous, even lacking the tuft of hairs at 
the base of the midrib which is characteristic of that species. These appear 
to come under the F. angustifolia, Vahl, of the same works, but since the 
material contains variations in other directions, it is not safe definitely to 
refer them to that western Mediterranean species. The material is inade- 
quate to settle whether they are of hybrid origin or possibly abnormally 
glabrous specimens of F. oxycarpa. Other closely related glabrous species 
grow in Asia Minor, and the relationships of these plants require further 
investigation on the spot. 
The bulk of the material collected, however, consists of extremely pubescent 
specimens, here described as a species new to science. The extremely 
peculiar plant described as var. y has not been kept distinct owing to the 
absence of fruits and the presence of other peculiar forms in the material 
under discussion. It also requires further study in the field. Since it was 
at first regarded as possible that the vars. « and В, which are in leaf- 
characters somewhat intermediate between var. y and F. охусатра, might be 
the result of hybridisation between those two forms, more material, much 
more complete in respect of the fruit, was obtained through the kindness of 
Mr. George Marshall, of Sulina. Upwards of fifty packets were received, 
‘ach collected from a different tree, excluding two cases of mixed glabrous 
and hairy specimens which are not likely to come from the same plant. 
These packets were sorted first into glabrous and hairy piles. From the 
latter were separated twenty-eight packets, from which the following 
description was written, leaving several extremely variable specimens, some 
with leaflets broad, some large and thin, some entire, some with extremely 
large teeth. Two had long narrow fruits ; one had the fruits broad and very 
emarginate except a single one broader than any other ash-fruit I have 
seen. Since most of these variations also occur on the glabrous plants, they 
may well be due to segregation from hybrids, while the possibility of the 
occurrence of 7. parvifolia, whose home, South Russia, is not far distant, is 
not to be exeluded. It is obvious that the Ash-trees of the neighbourhood 
have been neglected, and that there are many questions to be answered 
by careful field-work. 
