332 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Several species of P hilly' rea, and the Virginian Fringe tree, 

 Chionanllius Vi?-ginica, are cultivated in our gardens for their 

 beauty as ornamental shrubs. 



The representative of 



2. THE LILAC TRIBE, 



THE LILAC, SYRPNGA VULGARIS, 



" Various in array, now white, 

 Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set 

 With purple spikes pyramidal," 



was one of the first plants introduced by our forefathers, and it 

 is universally found: often, in the front of ancient houses, grow- 

 ing almost to the size of a tree. The more delicate Persian lilac, 

 & Persica, is getting gradually into favor. 



3. THE ASH TRIBE. FRAXI'NEJE. Bartling. 



Distinguished by having its fruit a single samara or key, con- 

 tains the genera Fraxinus and Ornus. 



XV. 2. THE ASH. FRA'XINUS. Tournefort. 



The ashes are lofty trees, with deciduous, compound, une- 

 qually pinnate, articulated leaves, axillary and terminal scaly 

 and downy buds, and flowers in lateral, crowded panicles, ris- 

 ing from the axis of the last year's leaves. They are found 

 abundantly in North America, in smaller numbers in Europe 

 and Central Asia, rarely in Eastern Asia. 



The flowers are perfect, or wanting stamens or pistils, on dis- 

 tinct plants or on the same plant : usually the two sexes are 

 found on different trees. The calyx and corolla are four-parted 

 or wanting. Stamens two. Ovary free, two-celled. The fruit 

 is a one-seeded samara or key, cylindrical at base, compressed 

 above, and ending in a long, membranous wing. The ashes 

 are usually without a corolla. From this circumstance, the 

 family is properly placed next those which have never a co- 

 rolla. 



The ashes yield to the oaks alone in the number and import- 

 ance of their uses. The timber of no other tree of Europe or 



