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NEGUNDO FRAXINIFOLIUM. 
importance. It arrives at maturity in fifteen or twenty years, and has been 
known to attain a height of forty or fifty feet, when cultivated under favoura- 
ble circumstances. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the Negundo fraxinifolium has a fine, 
even grain, and is saffron-coloured, slightly mixed with violet, but is rather 
tender. The proportion of the alburnum to the heart-wood is large, except in 
very old trees, in which the heart-wood is variegated with bluish and rose-col- 
oured veins. In America, it is seldom employed for any other purpose than that 
of fuel ; but in Europe, it is used in cabinet-making, particularly for inlaying. 
It works well, is elastic and sonorous. It has been stated that sugar has been 
extracted from the sap of this tree, but this is denied by Michaux. He suggests 
that, from its rapid growth, after being cut down to the ground, it might form a 
valuable underwood, to be cut every three or four years, for fuel, charcoal, and 
other purposes. But this has been tried in France ; and, unless the soil be kept 
constantly humid, the stool is found to decay in a few years. In England, it is 
solely to be considered as an ornamental tree ; and there, as well as in the United 
States, it merits the attention of cultivators and amateurs, in situations where 
immediate effect is the object ; for it is rapid in its growth, showy in its appear- 
ance, by the fine green of its shoots, its large, pinnate leaves which move by 
the slightest breeze, and its wide-spreading summit. It also merits attention 
from its faculty of growing in almost any kind of soil. 
