i9o8 ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN TREES 41 



The Black Ash is distinctly a nort'-iern 

 species, and in forests, under most favorable 

 conditions, attains the height of 80-90 ft., with 

 straight columnar trunk 3-4 ft. in diameter. 

 When isolated it develops a rounded ovoid top, 

 which may be recognized when leafless by its 

 stout straight branchlets (those of the stami- 

 nate tree being larger than of the pistillate) 

 and the gray scaly bark of trunk. 



It inhabits the low banks of streams and cold 

 swamps, in company' with the Arbor-Vitaj, 

 Balsam, Tamarack, Silver ^laple, Black Spruca, 

 etc., sometimes forming a considerable portion 

 of forest tracts. 



Its wood is rather heavy, a cubic foot when 

 dry weighing 38. ,37 lbs., moderately hard and 

 strong, and is valued in the manufacture of 

 furr.it .re and lumber for interior finishing, for 

 barrel hoops, etc. It is e.xtensively used in the 

 manufacture of splints for baskets, owing to 

 the facility with which it splits between the 

 layers of annual growth. The " Ash Burl " 

 veneering is a product of this tree, being sliced 

 from the " knots " or burls which form on its 

 trunk and larger branches. Their cause or 

 origin is not well understood.2 



Leaves 10-lG in. lone, with 7-11 oblong to 

 oblong-lanceolate sessile leaflets, the terminal one 

 petiolulate, roundefl or ciineate and unequal at 

 base, long-acuminate at apex, sharply serrate, to- 

 mentose at first but at maturit.v glabrous dark 

 griiAn above, somewhat pa'er and glabrous with 

 rufous hairs along the midrib beneath. Flowers 

 pol.vgamo-dioecious. calyx none : petals none ; 

 stamens 2 sometimes rudimentary in the pistillate 

 flowers. Fruit samara, linear-oblong, 1-1 1/2 in. 

 long, 14 in. broad, winged all around and with 

 flattened faintly-veined body and thin wing 

 emarginate at apex.^ 



1. Syu. Fraxinus samhucifolia Lam. 



2. A. W., Ill, 62. 



3. For genus see pp. 454-455. 



One page from the Handbook of American Trees — The tree represented here is 



Black Ash 



