230. ARBUTUS ARIZONICA ARIZONA MADRONA. 27 



larly characteristic, that of the branches being very smooth and of a 

 dark red color, exfoliating in thin papery sheets, and that of the old 

 trunks is of a light gray color on the outer surface, fissured into 

 shallow rounded ridges which exfoliate in thin curved scales. It is a 

 handsome tree at all seasons of the. year, owing to the striking contrast 

 in color of the branches and foliage, but particularly so when bearing 

 its numerous clusters of white waxen flowers or later its scarlet fruit. 



HABITAT. The Arizona Madrona has usually been considered as 

 found only on the Santa Catalina and Santa Ana mountains of southern 

 Arizona and the mountain ranges to the southward in Mexico. The 

 writer, however, has found it in considerable abundance in extreme 

 southeastern Arizona, on the Chiricahua mountains above Fort Rucker, 

 thus extending its known range within the United States considerably 

 to the eastward. It is found scattered over dry gravelly slopes and 

 benches at elevations of from six to eight thousand feet altitude. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather soft though heavy, brittle, 

 close-grained, with very numerous fine medullary rays and quite 

 evenly distributed fine ducts. It is of a light reddish-brown color 

 with lighter sap- wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7099; Percentage of Ash, 

 0.26; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7081; Coefficient of Elas- 

 ticity ', 61577 '; Modulus of Rupture, 618; Resistance to Longitudinal 

 Pressure, 401; Resistance to Indentation, 247; Weight of a Cubic 

 Foot in Pounds, 44.24. 



USES. It is too uncommon or inaccessible a wood to have attracted 

 attention commercially, but the tree itself would seem to deserve 

 greater popularity for ornamental planting than has hitherto been 

 accorded it. 



ORDER OLEACEJE: OLIVE FAMILY. 



Leaves opposite and single or pinnately compound. Flowers monopetalous 

 (rarely apetalous or polypetalous); calyx 4-cleft, toothed or entire, or sometimes 

 wanting, corolla regular, 4-cleft (or sometimes 4-petalous, or even wanting alto- 

 gether) ; stamens only 2 (or rarely 4) ; ovary 2-celled with usually two suspended 

 ovules in each cell. Fruit fleshy or capsular, containing 4 (or fewer) seeds. 



GENUS FRAXINUS, TOURNEFORT. 



Leaves petioled, oddly- pinnate, with 3-15 toothed or entire leaflets. Flowers 

 small, racemed or panicled, from the axils of the last year's leaves, the American 

 representatives dicecieus and apetalous ; calyx and corolla, when present, as 

 described for the order ; anthers large, linear or oblong ; style single, stigma 

 2-cleft. Fruit a 1 -2-celled, flattened samara, winged at the apex, 1-2 pendulous 

 seeds in each cell. 



(The ancient Latin name of the Ash ; supposed to be from the Greek <f>pois, a 

 separation, alluding to the facility with which the wood splits.) 



