Box ELDER; ASH-LEAVED MAPLE (Acer negundo, Linn.;. 

 50 to 70 feet. Quick-growing, sturdy, irregular tree, with 

 brittle limbs and twigs. Bark gray, regularly furrowed; twigs 

 glaucous, purplish; buds red. Wood soft, white, weak, 

 close-grained, used in cooperage and for woodenware and 

 paper pulp. Trees planted for shade and protection in prairie 

 states. Leaves opposite, compound, of 3 to 5 pinnate leaf- 

 lets, irregularly toothed and lobed, nearly smooth at maturity, 

 thin, bright green, pale beneath, turning yellow in autumn. 

 Flowers dioecious, opening with leaves; staminate silky, in 

 clusters; pistillate in racemes, inconspicuous, wind-fertilized. 

 Early spring. Fruit, racemes of flat, winged keys, 1^ to 2 

 inches long, ripe in September, but persistent till spring. 

 Dist.: Vermont to Montana; south to Florida and west to 

 Utah. Rare east of the Appalachian Mountains. 



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