EXOGENOUS SERIES-BROADLEAF WOODS. 35 



White Ash. Fraxinus americana Linn. 



Nomenclature. (Sudworth. ) 



White Ash (local and common Cane Ash (Ala., Miss., La.). 



name). American Ash (la.). 



Ash (Ark., la., Wis., 111., 

 Mo., Minn.). 



Locality. 



Nova Scotia to Florida, westward intermittently to Minnesota 



and Texas. Greatest development in the Ohio River basin. 

 Features of Tree. 



. Forty-five to ninety feet in height, occasionally higher. Three 

 to four feet in diameter. Usually smooth leaves, have whitish 

 under surfaces. Gray bark in prominent vertical ridges. 

 Long-winged seed. 

 Color, Appearance, or Grain of Wood. 



Heartwood reddish brown, usually mottled; sapwood much 

 lighter or nearly white. Coarse-grained, compact structure. 

 Layers clearly marked by large open ducts. Medullary rays 

 obscure. 



Structural Qualities of Wood. 



Heavy, hard, strong, elastic, becoming brittle with age, not 

 durable in contact with soil. 



Representative Uses of Wood. 



Agricultural implements, carriages, handles, oars, interior and 

 cheap cabinet-work. 



Weight of Seasoned Wood in Pounds per Cubic Foot. 

 39 (U. S. Forestry Div.).* 



40. 



Modulus of Elasticity. 



1,640,000 (average of 87 tests by U. S. Forestry Div.).* 



1,440,000. 



Modulus of Rupture. 

 . 10,800 (average of 87 tests by U. S. Forestry Div.).* 



12,200. 



Remarks. 



Economically valuable. Rapid growers, preferring low, rather 

 moist soil. Not apt to form in forests, but found often in clumps 

 mingled with other varieties. Large trees sometimes have large 

 heart-cracks. 



* See page 8. 



White ash is subject to a fungus disease by which its wood is reduced to a 

 soft, pulpy, yellowish mass, unfit for lumber. The disease which known as white 

 rot progresses until the tree becomes so weak that it is blown over by the winds. 

 (See windfalls, page 155.) It does not attack dead or seasoned woods. Von 

 Schrenk. U. S. Bureau Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 32. 



