OLEACEZ. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
27 
to decorate parks and gardens, especially Fraxinus Americana in the United States, Fraxinus excel- 
sior, with its varieties,’ and Fraxinus Ornus in Europe, and Fraxinus floribunda? in northern India. 
Numerous insects * prey upon Fraxinus in North America, where many of the species are attacked 
by fungal diseases.' 
The species of Fraxinus can be easily raised from seeds, which sometimes do not germinate until 
the second year; and the varieties can be multiplied by grafting. Their fibrous roots, which usually 
remain near the surface of the ground, make the operation of transplanting Ash-trees easy and safe. 
Fraxinus, the classical name of the Ash-tree, was adopted by Linnzus as the name of the genus. 
at some distance from those in which the wax is produced, on trees 
of Ligustrum lucidum, Aiton, planted for the purpose ; and during 
the month of April the cocoons are carried by trains of porters, 
who travel only at night that the heat of the sun may not cause the 
Arrived at their destination, the 
cocoons are placed on the young shoots of the Ash-trees planted 
cocoons to hatch prematurely. 
along the borders of canals and irrigating ditches and kept down 
by constant cutting to the height of six or seven feet. At the end 
of a few days the insects begin to appear and spread over the 
branches, which are gradually covered with a white waxy sub- 
stance. Toward the end of August the incrusted branches are 
cut off and boiled in water, when the wax rises to the surface ; it 
is then melted, poured into deep pans, and allowed to harden, 
when it is ready for shipment. 
Chinese white wax is chiefly used to cover candles made of vege- 
table or animal tallow, to coat pills and boluses in order to preserve 
them, and to give a glossy surface to paper, cotton cloth, the soles 
(See Martini, Novus Atlas Sinensis, 76, 
145. — Chanseaume, Mémoire sur la cire d’arbre, envoyée de la pro- 
vince de Hou-quang, Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, ed. Toulouse, 
xxiii. 118.— Julien, Comptes Rendus, x. 618 ; Industries de Empire 
Chinois, 109.—- Hanbury, Pharmaceutical Journal, xii. 476, f. ; Notes 
on Chinese Mat. Med. 40, f. 17. — Rathouis, Etude sur le Coccus 
Pé-la. — Hosie, Three Years in Western China, 189. — Kew Bulletin 
of Miscellaneous Information, April and May, 1893, 84.) 
1 Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1214. — Wenzig, Bot. Jahrb. iv. 177. — 
Wesmael, Bull. Bot. Soc. Belg. xxx. 91. 
2 Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. i. 150 (1820).— Wallich, Pl. As. Rar. iii. 
47, t. 277.— De Candolle, Prodr. viii. 275.— Brandis, Forest Fi. 
Brit. Ind. 302, t. 37. — Wenzig, /. c. 173. —C. B. Clarke, Hooker f. 
Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 605. 
Ornus floribunda, Dietrich, Spec. i. 249 (1831). — Loudon, l. c. 
653, f. 1270. 
Ornus urophylla, Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 57 (1837). 
Fraxinus urophylla, De Candolle, J. c. (1844). 
8 More than a hundred species of insects are recorded as attack- 
of shoes, and other articles. 
ing Fraxinus in America and Europe, although few of them appear 
peculiar to the genus. In America the most destructive of the 
wood borers are Podosesia Syringe, Harris, Carmenta Frazini, H. 
Edwards, and Neoclytus Caprea, Say. The larva of a large beetle, 
Centrodera decolorata, Harris, bores into the trunks of living trees, 
although probably only when they have been previously injured. 
Fatua denudata, Harris, is described as a root borer on young trees 
growing in swampy ground. Bark beetles of the genus Hylesinus 
attack the dead wood. 
There are few foliage destroyers found on Ash-trees in the 
United States which do not also injure the leaves of other trees. 
Among the lepidopterous larve which live upon the Ashes several 
species of large Sphingide@ and Bombycide are conspicuous. Saw- 
fly larve, like those of Monodaphnus bardus, Say, and others, are 
somewhat injurious to Ash-trees, and a large beetle, Dynastes Tityus, 
Linnzus, has been reported as attacking these trees in the southern 
states (Packard, 5th Rep. U. S. Entomolog. Comm. 1890, 551). 
The fruit is sometimes infested by little larve belonging to the 
Curculionide, and scale-insects are sometimes troublesome. An 
aphis, Pemphigus fraxinifolii, Thomas, distorts the leaves ; and gall 
mites like Phytoptus Fraxini, Garman, make minute galls on the 
leaves or occasionally distort them as well as the twigs and flowers. 
The conspicuous dark distorted growths which often remain on the 
trees in winter are panicles injured probably by mites (Garman, 
12th Rep. Illinois State Entomologist, 1882, 136). 
4 Many parasitic fungi attack the different species of Fraxinus 
in the United States. Among them several are abundant and 
striking in appearance even to the naked eye. Of these the 
Ash-leaf Rust, Zcidium Frazxini, Schweinitz, is perhaps the most 
conspicuous. It appears in early summer on the leaves and some- 
times on the young twigs of Frazinus Americana, Fraxinus nigra, 
and other species ; and although it is peculiar to America, and has 
not been observed in Europe, it attacks the European species when 
cultivated in this country. This fungus appears most frequently 
on the under side of the leaves in the form of numerous small tubes 
or cylinders of an orange-red color, which become white after the 
discharge of the spores. In some years the Ash-leaf Rust pro- 
duces a widespread epidemic, while in others it is extremely 
searce. A remarkable epidemic occurred in 1885, when this fungus 
appeared in immense quantities all over the United States, attack- 
ing the trees in large cities as well as those growing spontaneously 
in the forest. Since 1885, although occasionally mild epidemics 
have appeared, the Ash-leaf Rust has not been common. 
Spheronema Spina, Berkeley & Ravenel, often attacks our native 
species, especially Frazinus Americana. It is found on the smaller 
branches, where it appears in the form of sharp projecting black 
spines about an eighth of an inch in length. A number of species 
belonging to the genera Septoria, Spheropsis, Cylindrosporium, 
Gleosporium, etc., produce spots on the leaves of our Ash-trees, 
some of them causing considerable injury ; and a number of Pyre- 
nomycetes attack the bark. In spite of the large number of para- 
sites which attack the Ash in North America, it is, so far as diseases 
caused by fungi are concerned, a comparatively healthy tree. 
