Minnesota Plant Life. 361 



shaped, dark green above and light green and often hairy below. 

 The body of the fruit is cylindrical and the wing is tenninal, 

 not at all or but very slightly extended down the sides. 



Green ashes. The green ash is a smaller tree than the white 

 ash, and its wood is somewhat inferior in quality, though strong. 

 The leaflets are similar to those of the white ash, but rather 

 broader. The fruit is commonly winged down the sides. The 

 twigs and the flower stems are smooth or only very slightly 

 hairy. 



Red ashes. The red ash is a tree of about the same height 

 as the green ash, not exceeding thirty or forty feet in Minne- 

 sota. The twigs and flower stalks are covered with velvety 

 hairs and the fruit is generally winged down the sides. 



Blue ashes. The blue ash may be recognized by the four- 

 sided young twigs, the smooth foliage and the leaflets — num- 

 bering from seven to eleven, — slender and of a more willow- 

 shaped outline than in the preceding varieties. The fruit is 

 broader, shorter and heavier in appearance than that of the 

 white ash, and is winged down the sides. 



Black ashes. The black or elder-leafed ash, unlike the oth- 

 ers, is a swamp tree, occasionally growing also in low, wet 

 woods along streams. There are from seven to eleven leaflets 

 in each leaf, but the twigs are cylindrical, not four angled. Both 

 the blue and the black ash are large trees, sometimes reaching a 

 height of a hundred feet or more. The bark in both varieties 

 is of a gray color. The wood of the black ash is heavy but not 

 very strong, and the tree is noticeable for the stemless character 

 of the lateral leaflets, in which respect it differs from all the 

 other ashes. This tree is often affected by an insect which pro- 

 duces large "witches-brooms" or galls. 



Ash flowers are rarely perfect. Usually they are separated, 

 the staminate flowers blooming on one tree and the pistillate 

 on another, though in other instances both separated and per- 

 fect flowers are found on the same tree. The calyx is small, 

 or it may be altogether wanting. The corolla, too, is some- 

 times lacking. There are usually two stamens inserted below 

 the fruit-rudiment, or on the base of the petals when they are 

 present, and the stigma is two-cleft, so that the fruit-rudiment 

 has two chambers, in each of which a couple of seed-rudiments 



