356 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



latter having still smaller and more numerous leaflets, numbering 

 from nine to eleven on each leaf. 



The C. microcarpa is a variety closely resembling the shell-bark 

 hickory in its leaves, which, though smaller, are composed of five 

 leaflets, and in its small thin-shelled nut ; but its bark is like that 

 of the thick-shelled hickory. It is abundant in the forests of New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



THE PECAN-NUT, C. olivaformis, is not found much north of 

 the Ohio river valley; south, it becomes a large and beautiful 

 tree. Its nuts are long, pointed, and thin-shelled, and considered 

 by some persons the most delicate of all the hickories. We do 

 not consider them any better than those of the shell-bark hickory. 

 The tree resembles the water bitter-nut hickory, with thirteen to 

 fifteen leaflets to the leaf. 



THE ASH. Fraxinus. 



The ash is a common forest tree all over the United States, but 

 its varieties are less interesting than those of many other species. 

 In the forest the trees are lofty, with straight stems and slender 

 limbs. In open ground they are generally round-headed or 

 ovate, of tolerably abundant foliage, but late in leaf, and less 

 pleasing in color than many other trees. It is also noted for ex- 

 hausting the soil to such an extent as to injure the lawn under its 

 branches. 



THE WHITE ASH. F. americana. This is the finest and loftiest 

 of the family. It has a straight trunk, occasionally rising in the 

 forest to one hundred feet, with light-colored or gray bark, latticed 

 into ridges and deep furrows. The branches are clean, straight, 

 numerous, and rarely large, and issue from the trunk at an acute 

 angle. 



It is a refined, but not a majestic tree, without its leaves. In 

 leaf it is occasionally a superb tree, symmetrically globular or ovate, 

 with abundant foliage, 'of a dull or bluish-green color. The head 

 does not break into fine masses until the tree is old. In autumn 





