910 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Fraxinus pennsylvanica was introduced into England in 1783 1 ; and it is often 

 met with in cultivation in public parks and botanic gardens, where it grows well as 

 a small tree. One in the Botanic Garden at Oxford measures about 50 feet by 

 3 feet, and I have seen smaller trees at Stowe and elsewhere. I have raised it from 

 American seed, and it seems to grow as fast as the white ash, but not so fast as the 

 green ash. It ripens its wood better, and when young loses its leaves earlier than 

 either of these. 



Macoun says 2 that the red ash and the green ash are not separated com- 

 mercially from the other species, the wood of the latter resembling that of the white 

 ash, while that of the former is more like the black ash. Therefore there is some 

 doubt whether Laslett, who writes of the Canadian ash, whose timber is often 

 confounded with that of the white ash, is speaking of this tree or of the black ash 

 which he does not mention. He says that it was, until recently, imported in consider- 

 able quantity in the form of oars, and that it is reddish brown in colour, considerably 

 darker than the wood of the English ash. (H. J. E.) 



FRAXINUS OREGONA, Oregon Ash 



Fraxinus oregona, Nuttall, Sylva, iii. 59, t. 99 (1849); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vi. 57, t. 276 (1894), 

 and Trees N. Amer. 776 (1905). 



A tree attaining 80 feet in height and a girth of stem of 1 2 feet. Bark deeply 

 divided by interrupted fissures into broad flat scaly ridges. Young shoots stout, 

 covered with dense white tomentum, which persists in the second year ; lenticels 

 white, inconspicuous. Leaflets (Plate 263, Fig. 15), 3 to 4 inches long, subsessile, 

 usually seven, sometimes five or nine, oval, about twice as long as broad, base 

 rounded or abruptly tapering, apex acute or shortly acuminate ; margin entire or 

 minutely and remotely crenate, ciliate ; upper surface with scattered fine pubescence ; 

 lower surface covered with dense white tomentum. Rachis white tomentose, with a 

 distinct shallow groove on its upper side, basal part wide and flattened. 



Flowers (section Leptalix) dioecious in glabrous panicles rising out of the 

 axils of the preceding year's shoot ; calyx present, persisting under the fruit, corolla 

 absent. Fruit obovate - oblong ; body slightly compressed; wing long, decurrent, 

 many-nerved, and rounded, apiculate or emarginate at the apex. 



Fraxinus oregona can only be confused with sessile forms of F. pennsylvanica, 

 which has longer serrate leaflets, with more nerves, tapering gradually to the base. 

 In F. oregona the leaflets are shorter in proportion to their breadth, and are usually 

 entire in margin ; but this last character is not absolutely distinctive, as the leaflets 

 of the two species vary in regard to the presence or absence and size of the 

 serrations. 



1 Aiton, Hort. Kew. v. 476 (1813). * Forest Wealth of Canada, p. 23. ' 



