OLEACE. 
26 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
or sometimes two or three-celled and winged. Seed solitary by abortion in each cell, oblong, compressed, 
suspended, filling the cavity of the fruit ; testa thin, chestnut-brown. Embryo erect in copious fleshy 
albumen ; cotyledons flat; radicle terete, abbreviated, superior, turned towards the minute hilum.’ 
Fraxinus is widely distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and within the 
tropics occurs on the island of Cuba.2 Of the thirty species which are now distinguished, nearly one 
half inhabit North America® The genus is well represented in eastern Asia,* where ten or twelve 
species are recognized; it appears on the Himalayas, in central Asia,° the Orient,’ Europe,’ and 
northern Africa.? Except in the extreme north, Fraxinus is found in all parts of North America, the 
largest number of species occurring in the eastern part of the continent, where they are often important 
elements of the forest. The type is an ancient one, and during the tertiary epoch Fraxinus inhabited 
the Arctic Circle, from which it gradually spread southward.” 
Fraxinus produces tough straight-grained valuable wood, and several of the North American 
species, the European and Asiatic Fraxinus excelsior,” and the Manchurian and Japanese Praxinus 
Mandshurica,* are large and important timber-trees. The saccharine exudation from the trunk and 
leaves of Fraxinus Ornus,* of southern Europe and Asia Minor, furnishes the manna” of commerce, 
which is used in medicine as a gentle laxative; and from the branches of Fraxinus Chinensis® and of 
Fraxinus rhynchophylla™ the Chinese white wax is obtained.’® Several species of Fraxinus are planted 
1 The genus Fraxinus is divided into two sections : — 
Ornus. Panicles terminal on leafy shoots or axillary on 
branches of the year or of the previous year. Flowers polygamous 
or perfect, with two or four or rarely with five or six petals. 
FRAXINASTRUM. Panicles from separate buds developed in the 
axils of leaves of the previous year, or from the leafless base of 
shoots of the year. Flowers diccious, polygamous, or rarely per- 
fect, apetalous. 
2 Grisebach, Cat. Pl. Cub. 170. 
8 Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. pt. i. 73. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. 
Cent. ii. 304. 
4 Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 310; ii. 454. — Fran- 
chet, Pl. David. i. 203. — Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. 
xxvi. 84. 
5 C. B. Clarke, Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 605. 
6 Regel, Act. Hort. Petrop. viii. 685, t. 12. 
7 Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 39. 
8 Nyman, Conspect. Fl. Europ. 495. 
® Cosson & Durieu, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, ii. 367. 
10 Authors have unnecessarily multiplied the number of North 
‘American species of Fraxinus, especially Bose in France (Mém. 
Inst. 1808) and Rafinesque in the United States (Alsograph. Am.), 
and many of their species cannot be distinguished by the descrip- 
tions. The following species of Bose, mostly founded upon the 
foliage of cultivated trees, cannot be safely referred to our species : 
Frazinus alba, F. cinerea, F. elliptica, F. fusca, F. mizta, F. nigra, 
F. ovata, F. pannosa, F. pulverulenta, F. Richardi, F. rubicunda, and 
F. rufa. 
11 Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 231, f. 29. — Zit- 
tel, Handb. Paleontolog. ii. 760, f. 389, 390. 
1% Linneus, Spec. 1057 (1753).— Fl. Dan. vi. t. 969. — Hayne, 
Aran. xiii. t. 10. — De Candolle, Prodr. viii. 276. — Boissier, 1. c. — 
Koch, Dendr. ii. 240. — Wenzig, Bot. Jahrb. iv. 176. — C. B. Clarke, 
l. c.— Koehne, Deutsche Dendr. 513. 
78 Ruprecht, Bull. Phys. Mat. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, xv. 371 
(1857). — Regel, Mém. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, iv. 104 (Tent. 
Fi. Uss.). — Maximowiez, Prim. Fl. Amur. 194; Bull. Acad. Sci. 
St. Pétersbourg, xx. 432 (Mél. Biol. ix. 395).—Franchet & Sava- 
tier, l. c. ii. 435. — Wenzig, I. c. 179. — Forbes & Hemsley, J. c. 86. 
M4 Linneus, Spec. I. c. (1753). — Sibthorp, Fl. Grec. i. 4, t. 4. — 
Nouveau Duhamel, iv. 61, t. 15. — De Candolle, J. c. 274. — Watson, 
Dendr. Brit. ii. 107, t. 107. — Koch, 1. c. 235. — Wenzig, J. c. 168. — 
Koehne, JZ. c. 508. 
Fraxinus rotundifolia, Du Roi, Harbk. Baumz. i. 286 (1771). — 
Lamarck, Dict. ii. 546. — Willdenow, Berl. Baumz. 116, t. 6, f. 
1.— Vahl, Enum. i. 49. — De Candolle, l. c. — Koch, J. ¢. 237. — 
Koehne, J. c. 508. 
Fraxinus florifera, Seopoli, Fl. Carn. ed. 2, ii. 282 (1772). 
Ornus Europea, Persoon, Syn. i. 9 (1805). — Hayne, J. c. t. 11. 
Ornus rotundifolia, Persoon, J. c. ii. 605 (1807).— Hayne, J. c. 
t. 12. 
16 The medical manna of commerce is now produced in Sicily 
from trees planted for the purpose, the principal plantations being 
established near the shores of the Gulf of Castellamare and in the 
district of Cefalt. The trees, which are planted in rows, stand 
about seven feet apart, and are carefully cultivated and manured. 
When the trunk has attained a diameter of three inches the har- 
vesting of the manna begins, and may be continued during ten or 
twelve years, when the tree is usually cut down and replaced by a 
shoot from the old roots. Dry weather is essential for the flow of 
manna, and the most favorable months for its production are July 
and August. It is obtained by making transverse incisions in the 
bark, beginning at the bottom of the tree, the juice which flows 
from the wounds in the bark being collected on the surface or on 
sticks and straws inserted in the cuts, or on pieces of tile. After 
it is removed from the trees the manna is allowed to dry and 
harden before it is packed. (See Hooker Jour. Bot. i. 130. — Stett- 
ner, Archiv. der Pharm. ili. 194. — Cleghorn, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin- 
burgh, x. 132. — Fliickiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 366.) 
16 Roxburgh, Fi. Ind. i. 150 (1820). — De Candolle, 1. c. 277. — 
Hance, Jour. Bot. xxi. 323. — Forbes & Hemsley, 1. c. 85. 
1 Hance, J. c. vii. 164 (1869) ; xiii. 184. — Franchet, 1. c. 203, t. 
17; Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, xxiv. 236.— Sargent, Garden 
and Forest, vi. 484, f. 70. 
Fraxinus Chinensis var. rhynchophylla, Forbes & Hemsley, /. ¢. 
86 (1889). 
18 The Chinese white wax is principally produced in the province 
of Sze-ch’uen, and is obtained by allowing an insect, Coccus Pe-la, 
Westwood (Gard. Chron. 1853, 532, f.), to puncture the young 
branches of Ash-trees. The insects are carefully bred, in districts 
