OLIVE FAMILY 189 



DIOSPYROS L. 



Flowers dioecious or somewhat monoecious, the staminate 

 ones in cymes, the pistillate ones axillary and solitary. Calyx 

 4-6-lobed. Corolla 4-6-lobed. Stamens in the staminate flowers 

 usually 16, in the pistillate ones 8, imperfect. Fruit large, 

 with the persistent calyx attached to its base, 4-8-seeded. 



1. D. virginiana L. PERSIMMON. Trees, with rough, black bark, and 

 very hard wood. Leaves oval or ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate 

 at the apex, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, entire and dark 

 green, smooth above, pale and often downy beneath, short-petioled, 

 deciduous. Flowers yellowish-white, the parts mostly in fours. Fruit 

 globose, edible when ripe, very astringent when green ; seeds large, 

 compressed, often wanting. Fruit ripening late in the fall. Common 

 in old fields and along roadsides S. and S.W.* 



79. OLEACE-ffi. OLIVE FAMILY 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, simple or odd-pinnate, 

 without stipules. Flowers usually in forking cymes, small, 

 white, greenish or yellow, bisexual or unisexual. Calyx free 

 from the ovary, 4-lobed or wanting. Corolla hypogynous, regu- 

 lar, 4-parted or of 4 separate petals, sometimes wanting. Sta- 

 mens 2, borne on the petals or hypogynous. Ovary 2-celled. 

 Fruit 1-2-celled, each cell 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded (in For- 

 sythia many-seeded). 



I. FRAXINUS Tourn. 



Deciduous trees. Flowers dioecious. Petals wanting (in our 

 species). Stamens 2, hypogynous. Fruit a 1-2-celled key, each 

 cell 1-seeded. 



1. F. americana L. WHITE ASH. A large tree; bark rough, gray; 

 wood hard, strong, elastic ; twigs and petioles smooth. Leaflets usu- 

 ally 7, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed at the apex, rounded 

 or obtuse at the base, entire or slightly serrate, smooth above, often 

 downy beneath, short-stalked. Flowers mostly dioecious. Calyx of the 

 pistillate flowers persistent. Key l|-2 in. long, winged only at the 

 apex; wing spatulate or oblanceolate. In rich woods and swamps.* 



2. F. pennsylvanica Marsh. RED ASH. A small tree; bark rough, 

 dark gray; twigs and petioles densely velvety-downy. Leaflets 5-9, 

 oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed at the apex, narrowed 



