THE HISTORY OF THE LINDEN AND ASH 



EDWARD W. BERRY 



The Johns Hopkins University 



THE ASH 



Few except professional botanists realize that our familiar ash 

 of southeastern North America is a member of the Olive family, 

 or Oleaceae as it is known scientifically. This family of plants, 

 named originally from the Mediterranean olive, now extensively 

 cultivated in California, contains a number of other well known 

 plants, both native and introduced, some of which are greatly 

 prized for ornamental planting. The devil-wood (Osmanthus) 

 of our Gulf states, sometimes called the American olive, belongs 

 ill this family, as do the lilac, forsythia, privet, syringa and 

 jasmine. 



The two principal areas of distribution of the existing ashes 

 are southeastern North America and southeastern Asia although 

 they are not wanting in Europe or along the west coast of North 

 America. TJiere are about the same number of species of ash in 

 China as there are in North America but those of the latter re- 

 gion are usually larger trees and yield a more valuable timber. 

 In addition to the ash two other genera of the Olive family, namely, 

 Chionanthus and Os7nantfius, are common to China and our south- 

 eastern states — in the former country Osmanthus flowers are used 

 for the scenting of tea. 



Obviously Fraxinus, Chionanthus and Osinanthus did not origi- 

 nate simultaneously or at different times in Asia and North 

 America, and there must have been a time when these outlying 

 centers of distribution were connected. On a subsequent page 

 we shall see that this is clearly shown in the case of the ash 

 {Fraxinus), and the presence of a fossil Osmanthus in the early 

 Eocene of Tennessee indicates that this genus also is an ancient 



163 



THE PLANT WORLD. VOL. 21, NO. 7 

 JULY, 1918 



