The Ashes and the Fringe Tree 



around the body. Preferred habitat, moist soil near streams or 

 lakes. Distribution, New Brunswick to Ontario and the Black 

 Hills in Dakota; south to Florida, Alabama and Nebraska. Uses: 

 Inferior to white ash in all ways. Often planted in eastern United 

 States for shade and ornament. 



The red ash thrives best in the Northeastern States, especially 

 in Pennsylvania. West of the Alleghanies it is an inferior tree. 

 Its lumber is of poor quality compared with white ash, but being 

 of the same colour it is often substituted for the latter by unscru- 

 pulous lumber dealers. 



The common name of this species probably refers to the red 

 inner layer of the outer bark of the branches. This trait alone 

 is not a distinguishing one, however, for white ash sometimes 

 shows the same character. The red ash has velvety down that 

 invests its new shoots. Winter and summer, this sign never 

 fails. The tree has slimmer twigs and branches than most of 

 the ashes, and crowds its buds and twigs much more closely. 

 The silky leaf linings lighten and soften the yellow-green foliage 

 mass. Red-ash seeds are extremely slender, and vary in size 

 and form, the most graceful in outline of all the darts the various 

 ash trees bear. Lingeringly the tree gives up its seeds in winter. 

 A breeze strong enough to tear off a few from the cluster will 

 carry them a considerable distance. The heavy body or seed 

 end of a key pitches downward, but the thin wing gives the wind 

 a chance to lift it. So on its dainty sail the seed is borne away 

 to plant an ash far from the parent tree, if by chance it fall in 

 good ground. It is easy to understand why ash trees always 

 grow scattered here and there through the woods. Go out on a 

 winter day when the wind blows a gale and see the pistillate tree 

 launching its seeds. It is worth a journey and some discomfort 

 to see it. 



Green Ash (Fraxinus lanceolata, Borkh.) A handsome, 

 round-headed tree, 50 to 60 feet high, with slender spreading 

 branches and grey twigs. Bark grey, furrowed, branches smooth. 

 Wood heavy, hard, strong, brown, coarse grained, brittle. Buds 

 rusty brown, very small, blunt. Leaves smooth, 5 to 9 leaflets 

 on short stalks; ovate or lanceolate, acuminate at apex, sharply 

 serrate, bright green on both sides, lustrous above. Flowers, 

 April to May, before leaves, dioecious. Fruit in thick clusters, 

 I J inches long, oblanceolate, body round. Preferred habitat, rich 



436 



