158 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



sprinkled frith dots of the same color which disappears as the 

 season advances. The leaves at their unfolding are accompanied 

 by stipulae which fall after two or three weeks : they are twelve 

 or fifteen inches long when fully developed, and composed of 

 three or four pair of leaflets with an odd one. The leaflets are 

 sessile, oval-acuminate, denticulated, of a deep green color, 

 smooth on the upper surface, and coated with red down upon 

 the main ribs beneath : when bruised they emit an odor like that 

 of elder leaves. Its flowers open in May or June, which are of 

 a greenish color, and are succeeded by seeds disposed in bunches 

 four or five inches- long, flat, and, like those of the blue ash, are 

 nearly as broad at the base as at the summit. 



The perfect wood is of a brown complexion and fine texture ; 

 it is tougher and more elastic than that of the white ash, but less 

 durable when exposed to the vicissitudes of dryness and moisture, 

 and for this reason it is less extensively used. Coach makers 

 do not employ it, and it is never wrought into oars, hand spikes 

 and pulleys. In New Hampshire and the state of Maine it is 

 preferred to the white ash for hoops, which are made of saplings 

 from six to ten feet in length split in the middle. As this wood 

 may be separated into thin, narrow strips, by mailing, it is selected 

 in the country for the bottoms of chairs, for baskets and riddles. 

 This wood is more liable than any other species to be disfigured 

 with knobs, which are sometimes of a considerable size and are 

 detached from the body of the tree to make bowls. The wood 

 of these excrescences has the advantage of superior solidity, and 

 when carefully polished exhibits singular undulations of the fibre ; 

 divided into thin layers it might be employed to embellish 

 mahogany. The ashes of this wood are singularly rich in alkali, 

 from which, in Vermont and New Hampshire, great quantities of 

 potash are made. 



