764 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



ary or early in Marcli, in elong'atcd panicles inclosed in the bud by chestnut-brown 

 pubescent scales; staminate flower composed of an annular disk and 2 or 3 stamens, 

 with short filaments and apiculate anthers; calyx of the pistillate flower cup-shaped, 1 

 slightly lobed, as long as the ovary gradually narrowed into the slender style 2-lobed 

 and stigmatic at the apex. Fruit lanceolate or oblanceolate, surrounded at the 



base by the persistent calyx, l|'-2' long, marked on each of the 2 faces by a broad 

 impressed midvein, the body short, surrounded by the thin many-nerved wing, nar- 

 rowed, rounded, and emarginate at the apex, and ^'-^' wide. 



A tree, 30-40 high, with a trunk sometimes 12' in diameter, small spreading 

 branches, and slender terete branchlets light orange-brown and occasionally marked 

 by large pale lenticels during their first season, ashy gray and roughened the follow- 

 ing year by the large horizontal obcordate elevated leaf-scars displaying a central 

 ring of fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds terminal, broadly ovate, acute, 

 rusty-pubescent, about \' long. Bark of the trunk j-q'-\' thick, light gray, and 

 broken on the surface into small thin closely appressed scales. 



Distribution. Deep swamps, valley of the St. Mary's River, southern Georgia, 

 to the lower Appalachicola River, Florida. 



6. Fraxinus nigra, Marsh. Black Ash. 



Leaves 12'-16' long, with stout pale petioles, and 7-11 oblong or oblong-lanceo- 

 late long-pointed leaflets, unequally wedged-shaped or sometimes rounded at the 

 base, remotely serrate, with small incurved teeth, the lateral sessile, the terminal on 

 a long or short petiolule, when they unfold covered especially below with rufous 

 hairs, and at maturity thin and firm, dark green above, paler below, glabrous with 

 the exception of occasional tufts of rufous hairs along the under side of the broad 

 pale midribs, 4'-5' long and l'-2' wide, with many conspicuous primary veins arcuate 

 near the margins and obscurely reticulate veinlets, turning rusty brown and falling 

 early in the autumn. FloTvers polygamous, without a calyx, appearing before the 

 leaves in compact or ultimately elongated panicles 4'-5' long, and covered in the bud 

 by broadly ovate dark brown or nearly black scales rounded at the apex; staminate 

 flowers on separate trees or mixed with perfect flowers, and consisting of 2 large 

 deeply pitted oblong dark purple apiculate anthers attached on the back to short 



