396 
FRAXINUS AMERICANA. 
Anglo-Americans. 
4. F. a. sambucifolia. Elder -leaved American Ash; Fraxinus sambucifoha, 
of Michaux, Don, Loudon, and others; Frene a feuilles de sureau, Frene noir, 
of the French ; Black Ash, Brown Ash, Water Ash, of the 
This tree, in favourable situations, frequently 
attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, with 
a trunk from two feet to two feet and a half in 
diameter. It is easily distinguished from the 
white ash by its bark, "which is more inclined to 
a yellowish cast, is smoother, with the furrows, 
in old trees, parallel and perpendicular, often 
infested with bunches of moss, and may, in 
some degree, be peeled off in small thin plates, 
or laminae. It may also be distinguished by its 
buds, which are of a deep-blue, or nearly black, 
and by the colour of its heart-wood, which is of 
a fine bistre-brown. The young shoots are of a 
bright-green, beset with black dots, which dis- 
appear as the season advances. The leaves at 
their unfolding are accompanied by stipuloe 
which fall after two or three weeks, are from 
twelve to fifteen inches long, when fully devel- 
oped, and are composed of three or four pairs of leaflets, with an odd one. 
The leaflets are sessile, oval-acuminate, denticulated, of a deep-green colour, 
smooth on the upper surface, and coated with a reddish down upon the main 
ribs, beneath. When bruised, they emit an odour like that of the leaves of the 
elder. This variety is among the last trees which put forth in spring, and the 
earliest that lose their leaves in autumn. The very first hard frost that comes, 
not only causes its leaves to fade and become yellow, as those of the other trees, 
but blackening and shrivelling them up, so that they fall in showers, with the 
least breath of wind. It is often completely denuded, in the northern parts of 
the United States by the 20th of September. The flowers, which put forth in 
May or June, are succeeded by flat samaras, or keys, disposed in bunches four or 
five inches long, that are nearly as broad at the base as at the summit. This 
variety is found chiefly in the middle and northern parts of the United States, 
and also abounds in the British colonies of North America, particularly in the 
forests of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where it is generally found in a 
moist soil, or one that is exposed to inundations, and is usually accompanied by 
the red maple, (Acer rubrum,) yellow birch, (Betula excelsa,) black spruce, 
(Abies nigra,) and the American arbor vitse (Thuja occidentalis.) In the mid- 
dle states of the union, this tree associates with the Fraxinus a. pubescens, and 
the Acer rubrum. Its wood is tougher and more elastic than that of the white 
ash, but less durable when exposed to the vicissitudes of moisture and dryness, 
for which reason it is less extensively used. Like the European ash, the value 
of its timber is increased by the rapidity of its growth ; and, as in the case of that 
species, the wood of young trees is more esteemed than that of old ones. The 
sap-wood of this variety is very white, tough, and compact, when compared 
with its heart- wood, which, as before observed, is of a fine bistre-brown, and from 
this circumstance the tree derives its name. In the parts of the country where 
this variety abounds it is split into rails for rural fences, which rank next to the 
cedar for durability, but are far more heavy and difficult to move. It has also 
been employed with advantage in the construction of dams, wharves, canals, and 
other works, particularly in the parts above the ordinary flow of the waters and 
streams, where strength and durability are required. It is not employed by 
coach-makers nor inill-wrights, nor is it ever wrought into oars, pulleys, or hand- 
