154 ELDER: ASH 



articulated, and often obliquely attenuated below ; ovate- 

 lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 

 coarsely and sharply or cuspidate-serrate, 3 9 cm. long 

 (3 15x3 6 cm.); glabrous above, often with scattered 

 hairs on the venation beneath. Petiolules and rachis 

 grooved above : stipules obsolete, represented by an inter- 

 petiolar ledge or line joining the leaf-insertions. The 

 lower leaves occasionally trifoliolate. Leaves emerge very 

 early and remain late, dying off yellowish green. 



Venation of leaflet pinnate-reticulate, the secondaries 

 irregularly sinuate, and rapidly breaking up with the 

 tertiaries into large polygonal meshes, oblique to the long 

 axis, and not traceable to the margins ; or with a slight 

 tendency to loop. 



(ii) Leaf exstipulate. Leaflets sessile or sub- 

 sessile : venation pinnate. 



Fraxinus excelsior, L. Ash (Figs. 31, 32). A large tree, 

 with stout woody shoots, often compressed, and leaves up to 

 30 40 cm. long. Leaflets about 9 13, or occasionally 15, 

 sessile, articulated, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, coarsely and unequally sharply serrate, attenuate and 

 entire at the base; each 3 9 (3 15 x 2 3) cm. long, 

 thin, glabrous, and green above, paler and with traces of 

 pubescence near the margin or on the midrib below. 

 Lower leaflets shorter than upper. Rachis stiff and tough, 

 channelled above, with a prominent pulvinus and leaving 

 a large scar. Exstipulate. Leaves emerge late, after the 

 flowers, and turn brown and yellow in autumn, disarticu- 

 lating as they fall. 



Venation pinnate, the secondaries nearly straight from 

 midrib to margin, slightly sinuate and curved upwards, 

 and looping just beneath the margins, where, with the 



