XV. 2. THE RED ASH. 337 



Sp. 2. The Red Ash. F. pubescens. Walter. 

 Figured in Michaux, Sylva, III, Plate 119. 



In its appearance, the red ash so strongly resembles the white, 

 that it is usually confounded with it. It is easily distinguished, 

 by the down on the recent branches and on the footstalks and 

 lower surface of the leaves. The distinction is important, as 

 the wood is less valuable than that of the white. It is found 

 in nearly the same situations, delighting in a moist, rich, loamy 

 soil, where it grows to a good size, though never to so great a 

 height as the white ash. On the rich intervale land on the 

 Connecticut River and its tributaries, it is often found over 

 three feet in diameter, and fifty or sixty feet high. A few rods 

 south of the great Celtis, in Springfield, I measured one in Sep- 

 tember, 1840, which was ten feet four inches in circumference 

 at the surface, and nine feet at three feet above. The red ash 

 is a spreading, broad-headed tree, and rises to a considerable 

 height only in the forest. The trunk is erect and branching, 

 covered with a dark ashy or granite gray bark, with numer- 

 ous longitudinal, superficial furrows, not often running into 

 each other. 



The branches are opposite, grayish, conspicuously dotted, the 

 younger ones green, or olive green ; and the recent shoots, with 

 the footstalks and under surface of the leaves, clothed with a 

 soft, velvety, grayish or rusty down. 



The last year's shoots are somewhat downy in appearance, 

 but not in reality. Near their extremity, in the axils of the last 

 year's leaves, are the flower branches. They are, when the 

 fruit is mature, three or four inches long, single, or in threes, 

 dividing by nearly opposite divisions, and subdividing, the sub- 

 divisions bearing at intervals single or double pairs of fruit or 

 keys, on short, thread-like stems. The keys are one and a half 

 or two inches long, and two or three lines broad, cylindrical 

 below, broader, flat and thin above, rounded and with some- 

 times an abrupt point at the extremity. Closely adhering to the 

 base is the slit calyx, ending in four jagged teeth. 



The leaves are opposite, ten to fifteen inches long, consisting 

 44 



