F R A 



F R I 



some days after they appear, so that at first they 

 appear to be male Bowers." Ii flowers in April, 

 or the fo'lowing month. 



There are varieties with simple leaves, lobed, 

 and even ternate ; with pendulous branches — or 

 Weeping Ash; with vaneij^tcd leaves, yellow 

 and white; or gold-striped and silver-striped-. 



In the second species the shoots are much 

 shorter, and the joints closer together than in 

 those of the Common Ash : the leaflets are 

 shorter, with deeper serratures on their edges, 

 and of a lighter green : the flowers come out 

 from the side of the branches, are of a purple 

 colour, and appear in the spring before the 

 leaves come out. It is of humble growth, sel- 

 dom rising to more than fifteen or sixteen feet 

 in height in this climate. 



The third species, accordmg to Miller, is a 

 low tree, about the same height as the preceding: 

 the leaves are composed of three or four pairs of 

 sawed lobes, far asunder, terminated by an odd 

 one, much smaller and narrower than those of 

 the Common Ash, but serrate, and of the same 

 dark colour : the flowers in large loose bunches 

 at the ends of the branches, having petals : they 

 are of a white herbaceous colour, mostly males, 

 and appear in May. 



There is a variety, the Dwarf Flowering Ash. 



In the fourth species, the New Englmd sort, 

 according;; to Miller, " the leaves have but three, 

 or at most four pairs of leaflets, placed far di- 

 stant from each other, and the odd leaflet run- 

 ning out into a very long point, of a light 

 green, and no serratures on their edges. It 

 shoots into strong irregular branches, but does 

 not grow to a large size in the trunk. And in 

 the Carolina kind the leaves have seldom more 

 than three pairs of leaflets, the lower being the 

 least, and the upper the largest ; these are about 

 live inches long and two broad, of a light green 

 colour, and slightly serrate ; the midrib is taper, 

 and has short downy hairs on it : the seeds 

 broader than those of the Common Ash, and of 

 a very light colour. 



The first of these is called the White Ameri- 

 can Ash ; and the second the Red American 

 Ash. And there is a third variety named the 

 Black Ash, in which the stem is erect, branching, 

 twenty or thirty feet in height, with large very 

 dark leaves composed of three or four pairs of 

 lobes and an odd one, small flowers of a green- 

 ish colour, and broad blaekish fruit. Other va- 

 rieties may also be found in the nurseries. 



Culture. — These plants may all of them be 

 increased with Facility by seeds, which in the 

 common sort should be sown in the autumn, 

 and in the others as soon as they can be obtain- 

 ed in the spring, on beds of light mould over 



the surface, raking them in to the depth of 

 nearly an inch. The younj plants shuuW be 

 afterwards kept clear from weed.;, and when 

 they have haJ one or two 'ears growth they 

 should be removed into nursery-rows, and 

 placed two feet asunder, and one distant in the 

 rows, where they must remain till fit for being 

 planted where they are to grow. 



The three last sorts may likewise be raised by 

 budding or ingrafting Upon common Ash stocks, 

 when of the size of a good bean stem. This 

 business should be performed a'. out the latter 

 end of summer ; but the plants raised in this 

 mode are not so fine as those from seed, on ac- 

 count of the stocks growing with more rapidity 

 than the heads. 



These are the only methods by which the va- 

 riegated varieties can be mcreasi 



All the sorts maybe introduced as ornamental 

 trees; but those of the American kind are the 

 most proper in small plantations or shrubberies. 



The first sort is highly useful as a timber tree. 



FRIAR'S COWL. ' See Aritm. 



FRINGE-TREE. Sec Chionanthus. 



FRITILLARIA, a genus comprising plants 

 of the bulbous-rooted perennial flowery kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Hexandria 

 Mor/ogyiiia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Coronarice. 



The characters are: that there is no calyx: 

 the corolla is six-petalled, bell- shaped, spread- 

 ing at the base : petals oblong, parallel : nectary 

 an excavaiion or pit in the base of each petal : 

 the stamina have six subulate filaments, approx- 

 imating to the style, the length of the corolla t 

 anthers quadrangular, oblong, erect: the pistil- 

 htm is an oblong germ, three-cornered, obtuse : 

 style simple, longer than the stamens : stigma 

 triple, spreading, blunt : (style trifid, with three 

 stigmas :) the pericarpium is an oblong capsule, 

 obtuse, three-lobed, three-celled, three-valved 

 (superior) : the seeds very many, flat, semi- 

 orbicular on the outside, in a double row. 



The species arc: 1. F. Meleagris, Common 

 Fritillary, or Chequered Lily ; 2. F. pyrcnaica, 

 Black Fritillary; 3. F. impciiuiis. Imperial 

 Fritillary, or Crown Imperial; 4. F. Pcrsica, 

 Persian Fritillary, or Persian Lilv. 



In the first the root is a solid bulb or tuber, 

 about the size of a hazel-nut, white or yellow- 

 ish white, roundish, compressed, divisible into 

 several, inclosed by the withered wrinkled bulb 

 of the preceding year as in a case. The stem 

 from six to twelve, fifteen, and even eighteen 

 inches in height, advancing considerably in 

 length after flowering; it comes out from the 

 side of the root, is simple, upright, round, 

 smooth, glaucous, and not unfrequently pur- 

 3 D 2 



