The Ashes and the Fringe Tree 



soil on banks of streams. Distribution, Lake Champlain to Flor- 

 ida; west to Utah, Arizona and Texas. Uses: A beautiful 

 shade tree, especially adapted to the regions of scant rainfall. 

 Lumber inferior to white ash, but used for the same purposes. 



The green ash has its name from the dark, lustrous foliage 

 which is intensified in its greenness by linings of the same colour, 

 undimmed by any pubescence or pale bloom. The planter on 

 the treeless stretches of Nebraska and Dakota loves this ash 

 which grows with the commoner willow and cottonwood, where 

 many trees utterly fail. A tree it is that not only lives but 

 flourishes, showing that it suffers no homesick pangs for a greener 

 land. 



In the East, the green ash and the red are distinct enough, 

 the latter having velvety, the former smooth, new shoots, in 

 the western part of the Mississippi basin are ash trees that appear 

 to be intermediate between the two species. Professor Sargent 

 ranks the green ash as a variety of the red. Other authorities 

 give it rank as a species; and it would not be surprising if further 

 study of the intergrading forms would justify the tree student in 

 making of these a distinct species, co-ordinate with the two 

 older ones. 



The most important thing, after all, about the green ash is 

 that it is one of the agencies which is by degrees turning the 

 Great American Desert into a land of shady roads and comfort- 

 able, protected homesteads. East of the Alleghanies the tree 

 is little known. West of this range the tree is one among many 

 shade trees where variety of planting is unlimited, in the West 

 the tree comes into its own and has few rivals. Here people 

 have a sort of affectionate regard for it. 



The Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata, Michx.) conceals 

 its bluing in its inner bark. Crush a bit of it in water and the 

 dye appears. But this is not always a convenient way to identify 

 a tree. There is a simpler and more satisfactory way. Take a 

 look at the twigs. Are they 4-sided toward the tips? Quadrangu- 

 lata means 4-angled. This obvious trait and the perfect flowers 

 set the blue ash apart from all the others. The leaves and seeds 

 might easily be confused with those of the black ash if form alone 

 were considered. But the foliage mass of a blue ash is yellow- 

 green, much lighter in colour than that of its sombre cousin of 

 the swamps. 



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