62. FRAXIXUS SAMBUCIFOLIA BLACK ASH. 27 



HABITAT. Eastern Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and north- 

 eastern United States, southward along the mountains to Virginia, grow- 

 ing in swamps and wet lowlands. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood moderately soft and heavy, not strong, 

 tough and separating easily between the rings. The heart-wood is abun- 

 dant and of a darkish brown color, the sap-wood lighter. Specific Grav- 

 ity, 0.6318; Percentage of Ash, 0.72; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 

 0.6273; Coefficient of Elasticity, 87185; Modulus of Rupture, 806; Re- 

 sistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 423; Resistance to Indentation, 194; 

 \Veight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 39.37. 



USES. A wood of extensive use in the manufacture of furniture and 

 for interior finishing. Another use, and one for which this timber is 

 almost unique in sections where it abounds, is in the manufacture of 

 splint baskets and chair bottoms, an industry largely in the hands of the 

 Indians, or at least commenced by them. For this use the Black Ash is 

 peculiarly qualified owing to the ease with which it splits between the 

 rings of growth. It is worked into sticks as wide along the rings as the 

 splints are to be, and perhaps two inches thick. These are then bent 

 sharply in the plane of the radius of the rings when they separate into 

 thin strips, nearly or quite as many as the rings of growth which compose 

 the thickness of the sticks. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not ascribed to this species. 



NOTE. There are interesting excrescences, sometimes found growing 

 on the trunks of the Black Ash, which deserve mention in this place, 

 and representation in the accompanying sections. I refer to what are 

 popularly known as "burls" or *' knots," though the latter name is in- 

 appropriate and misleading as they are in no way knots in the common 

 acceptation of the term. 



At a certain point on the trunk or a large limb a small, wart-like pro- 

 jection appears, and this continues to grow until in time it may become 

 as large as a caldron kettle or larger. When cut into, it is found to be 

 composed of wood of very much contorted grain through which can be 

 traced innumerable "pins" all radiating approximately from the one 

 starting point in the interior of the trunk. These burls when sliced 

 tangentially (parallel with the bark), as veneers, reveal a very curious 

 figure and are highly ornamental for furniture decoration. They are of 

 such popularity and commercial value that we have introduced in the ac- 

 companying sections an extra set (62 a ) to represent the growth. 



ORDER MORACEJE :* MULBERRY FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, alternate, sometimes polymorphous, furnished with usually fuga- 

 cious stipules. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, usually in spikes or beads; calyx 

 3-5-lobed, becoming fleshy in tbe fruit, free, imbricated in the bud, or rarely want- 



Moracete is ranked by some authors as a sub-order of the order Urticacew. 



