GAMOPETAL/ 157 
The enclosure of lands, and hedging and making 
of roads has had the effect of causing the Ash to be 
commonly planted in hedgerows and along the road. 
Plantations of Ash saplings are of frequent occur- 
rence also, the poles being used for fencing and 
other purposes; but in some districts it is truly 
indigenous, growing in woods and copses with a 
typical ground flora. 
The Ash is a tall, erect tree, with ashen bark, 
rimose on the trunk, smooth on the younger branches. 
The habit is typical, being at first drooping, then 
ascending in the form of the letter », or sigmoid. 
The leaves are pinnate, there being four to eight 
leaflets, the terminal one being longest, ovate and 
entire, and sub-sessile. 
The buds are black, flat, and the twigs are flat. 
The flowers are green, then purple, there being no 
calyx or corolla, only stamens and pistil. The flowers 
are terminal, imbricate in bud, then spreading. The 
fruit is in the form of “keys” or lanceolate capsules. 
The Ash is, when well grown, 8o ft. high. The 
flowers appear in April and May. 
The flowers, as in other trees, appear before the 
leaves. There being no perianth, they are not 
rendered conspicuous. They are, in short, crowded 
racemes. Some flowers are hermaphrodite, consisting 
of two stamens and two carpels at right-angles. 
The Ash is polygamous, and there are different 
combinations of male, female, or hermaphrodite 
flowers on the same tree or different individuals. 
