ASH-LEAVED NEGUNDO. 107 
or Curled-leaved Ash-leaved Negundo. It is of the male sex ; the inflorescence 
consists of pendulous panicles of flowers, that are green, with some redness from 
the colour of the anthers ; and each is placed upon a slender peduncle of about 
an inch in length. 
Geography and History. The Negundo fraxinifolium is a native of the 
United States, and of Canada. According to Dr. Hooker, it is abundant about 
Red River, in latitude fifty-four degrees, in the latter country, which may be 
considered as its most northern limit. It is seldom found growing wild in the 
northern parts of the union, nor in the maritime districts of the southern states. 
It commences on the banks of the Delaware, in the neighbourhood of Phila- 
delphia, and becomes more abundant towards the Alleghany Mountains, at the 
west of which, it is still more multiplied. 
This species was first introduced into England in 1688, by Bishop Compton, 
at Fulham ; and since that time it has been cultivated throughout Europe. The 
original tree, planted at Fulham, is believed still to be in existence. In 1793, it 
measured six feet and four inches in circumference three feet from the ground, 
and was computed to be forty-five feet in height. In 1809, it measured seven 
feet one and a half inches in girt ; and in 1835, the dimensions had scarcely 
varied. The largest tree of this species recorded in England, is at Kenwood, 
which had attained the height of forty-five feet in thirty-five years after planting. 
The negundo was introduced into France by Admiral Gallisoniere, in the time 
of Du Hamel. According to Baudrillart, the administration of forests at Paris, 
received a quantity of seeds from the neighbourhood of Lyons, from which a 
number of young plants were raised, and distributed through the national 
forests. Hence it appears that they had both the male and female trees in 
France, at that period. 
Michaux informs us that a row of these trees was planted in the Jardin des 
Plantes, in the Rue de Buffon, which gave an excellent idea of their appearance 
in their native forests. The largest of these trees which remained in 1835, esti- 
mated at upwards of sixty years of age, was fifty-one feet in height, with a head 
fifty-four feet in diameter. 
At Briick, on the Leytha, in Austria, there is a tree of this species, which 
attained the height of eighty feet in forty-eight years after planting, with an 
ambitus, or spread of branches of forty-eight feet. 
In the Bartram botanic garden, on the west bank of the Schuylkill, there is a 
tree of this species, fifty feet in height, with a trunk four feet in circumference. 
And there is another fine specimen growing in Washington square, in Phila- 
delphia, which has been planted about thirty years. 
Soil, Situation, fyc. In the bottoms which skirt the rivers in its native coun- 
try, where the soil is deep, fertile, constantly moist, and often inundated, the 
Negundo fraxinifolium is most abundant, and attains its largest size. Even 
here, however, it seldom exceeds fifty feet in height, with a trunk twenty inches 
in diameter ; and " trees of these dimensions," Michaux observes, " are found 
only in Tennessee, and in the back parts of Georgia, which lie far to the south." 
At the west of the Alleghanies, instead of being confined to the river sides, as in 
Virginia and the Carolinas, it grows in the woods, with the locust, (robinia,) 
wild cherry, (Cerasus virginiana,) and the coffee-tree ( gymnocladus. ) But in 
such situations, it does not attain so ample dimensions as in Tennessee and 
Georgia. When cultivated, the soil and situation of this tree may be the same 
as those of the Acer eriocarpum. When raised from seeds, they should always 
be sown, if possible, as soon as practicable after gathering, on account of the 
difficulty of keeping them until spring. The plants grow with amazing rapidity 
when the soil is deep, and somewhat moist ; but as it is not a long-lived tree, it 
should not be placed in situations where the permanent effect of wood is of 
