THE LILAC FAMILY. 



219 



the absence of this part reckons as a mere exception to the general 

 rule, that the family they compose has the customary floral coverings. 

 Similar anomalies occur in the leafless furze among the Leguminosts, 

 and in the genera that have no petals among the Eammculacece. 



The Oleacese are natives chiefly of temperate latitudes, inclining 

 towards the tropics, and number between one and two hundred species. 

 Many useful plants are contained in the family ; the ash-tree supplies 



Fig. 138. 

 Leaf and Fruit of Ash-tree. 



timber, the Olea Europaa olives and olive oil, and different kinds of 

 Ornus and Fraxinus the sweet medicinal substance called " manna." 



Two species grow wild in England, and both of them near Man- 

 chester. 



1. Atall and extremely graceful tree ("Fraxinus inpulcherrima sylvis ")," 

 with smooth gray bai'k, large sooty-black buds, and handsome 

 pinnate leaves, eight to twelve inches long, and composed of 

 five or six pairs of lanceolate, serrated leaflets. Flowers in 

 loose panicles, appearing before the foliage, and consisting 

 simply of two stamens and a pistil, the anthers large, oval, and j Ash-tree 

 of a fine reddish-purjile. Fruit a thin, flat, oblong, light-brown | 

 carpel, with a single seed lying at one end, and resembling half 

 of the fruit of the sycamore (p. 158). Individual trees are often 

 unisexual 



Common 



2. A shrub, three to six feet high, with dark-green, lanceolate, entire, 

 and pointed leaves, which often remain over the winter. Flowers 

 white, in pyramidal clusters, and sweet-scented. Fruit a globu- 

 lar and shining black berry 



Common 



PErVET. 



