ASH-LEAVED NEGUNDO. 107 



or Curled-leaved Ash-leaved Negundo. It is of the male sex ; the inflorescence 

 consists of pendulous panicles of flowers, that are green, with some redness from 

 the colour of tlie anthers; and each is placed upon a slender peduncle of about 

 an inch in len'gth. 



Geography and History. The Negundo fraxinifolium is a native of the 

 United States, and of Canada. According to Dr. Hooker, it is abundant about 

 Red River, in latitude fifty-four degrees, in the latter country, which may be 

 considered as its most northern limit. It is seldom found growing wild in the 

 northern parts of the union, nor in the maritime districts of the southern states. 

 It commences on the banks of the Delaware, in the neighbourhood of Phila- 

 delphia, and becomes more abundant towards the Alleghany Mountains, at the 

 west of which, it is still more multiplied. 



This species was first introduced into England in 1688, by Bishop Compton, 

 at Fulham ; and since that time it has been cultivated throughout Europe. The 

 original tree, planted at Fulham, is believed still to be in existence. In 1793, it 

 measured six feet and four inches in circumference three feet from the ground, 

 and was computed to be forty-five feet in height. In 1809, it measured seven 

 feet one and a half inches in girt ; and in 1835, the dimensions had scarcely 

 varied. The largest tree of this species recorded in England, is at Kenwood, 

 which had attained the height of forty-five feet in thirty-five years after planting. 



The negundo was introduced into France by Admiral Gallisoniere, in the time 

 of Du Hamel. According to Baudrillart, the administration of forests at Paris, 

 received a quantity of seeds from the neighbourhood of Lyons, from which a 

 number of young plants were raised, and distributed through the national 

 forests. Hence it appears that they had both the male and female trees in 

 France, at that period. 



Michaux informs us that a row of these trees was planted in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, in the Rue de Butfon, which gave an excellent idea of their appearance 

 in their native forests. The largest of these trees which remained in 1835, esti- 

 mated at upwards of sixty years of age, was fifty-one feet in height, with a head 

 fifty-four feet in diameter. 



At Briick, on the Leytha, in Austria, there is a tree of this species, which 

 attained the height of eighty feet in forty-eight years after planting, with an 

 ambitus, or spread of branches of forty-eight feet. 



In the Bartram botanic garden, on the west bank of the Schuylkill, there is a 

 tree of this species, fifty feet in height, with a trunk four feet in circumference. 

 And there is another fine specimen growing in Washington square, in Phila- 

 delphia, which has been planted about thirty years. 



Soil, Situation, ^'c. In the bottoms which skirt the rivers in its native coun- 

 try, where the soil is deep, fertile, constantly moist, and often inundated, the 

 Negundo fraxinifolium is most abundant, and attains its largest size. Even 

 here, however, it seldom exceeds fifty feet in height, with a trunk twenty, inches 

 in diameter; and " trees of these dimensions," Michaux observes, "are found 

 only in Tennessee, and in the back parts of Georgia, which lie far to the south." 

 At the west of the AUeghanies, instead of being confined to the river sides, as in 

 Virginia and the Carolinas, it grows in the woods, with the locust, (robinia,) 

 wild cherry, (Cerasus virginiana,) and the coftee-tree ( gymnocladus. ) But in 

 such situations, it docs not attain so ample dimensions as in Tennessee and 

 Georgia. When cultivated, the soil and situation of this tree may be the same 

 as those of the Acer eriocarpum. When raised from seeds, they should always 

 be sown, if possible, as soon as practicable after gathering, on account of the 

 difficulty of keeping them until spring. The plants grow with amazing rapidity 

 when the soil is deep, and somewhat moist ; but as it is not a long-lived tree, it 

 should not be placed in situations where the permanent efiect of wood is of 



