263. FRAXINUS QUADBANQULATA BLUE ASH. 35 



and glabrous or hairy-tufted in the axils of the veins beneath. Flowers perfect, in loose 

 panicles ; calyx almost obsolete ; corolla none ; stamens 2 with dark purple oblong anther- 

 cells. Fruit linear-oblong, 1-2 in. long, winged all around, parallel-veined and the body 

 extending more than half way to the emarginate apex. 



The Blue Ash occasionally attains the height of 100 ft. (30 m.) or a little 

 more, and has a diameter of trunk of 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.), in southern Indiana 

 and Illinois, but elsewhere does not often surpass 75 ft. (25 m.) in height 

 or 2^ ft. (0.75 in.) in thickness of trunk. The bark of trunk is of an asher> 

 gray color and peculiarly rough with narrow elongated scales, which com- 

 monly loosen at their lower ends first and curve outwards, causing a mure 

 or less pronounced imbricated appearance. This peculiarity becomes more 

 and more pronounced with age and gives to old trunks a remarkably rough 

 and shaggy appearance. 



HABITAT. From southern Michigan to northern Alabama and central 

 Arkansas, and from the western slopes of the Alleghanies in Kentucky and 

 Tennessee to western Iowa and Nebraska, inhabiting mainly limestone 

 ridges and slopes and nowhere in very great abundance. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather heavy, hard and brittle, with very 

 obscure medullary rays and annual layers of growth marked by numerous 

 large open ducts. It is of a light yellowish brown color with lighter sap- 

 wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7184; Percentage of Ash, 0.78; Relative Ap- 

 proximate Fuel Value, 0.7128; Coefficient of Elasticity, 77439; Modulus of 

 Rupture, 811; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 499; Resistance to 

 Indentation, 222 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 44.77. 



USES. --- The' wood is used for flooring, agricultural implements, etc., and 

 from the inner bark a blue dye is made, from which fact the tree takes its 

 name. It is a tree of excellent habit of growth and other features which 

 make it desirable for ornamental planting. 



ORDER LAURACE^ : LAUREL FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, simple, generally marked with pelueid dots and (as with the bark) 

 aromatic. Flowers in clusters; sepals 4-6; colored, slightly united at the base, strongly 

 imbricated in 2 rows in the bud; petals absent; stamens definite with 2-4-celled anthers 

 which open by recurved lid-like valves: pistil solitary, free, 1-celled, 1-ovuled and with 

 single style. Fruit a drupe or berry with single suspended anatropous albumenless seed. 

 Trees and shrubs. 



GENUS PERSEA, GAERTNER. 



Leaves entire, evergreen. Flowers perfect, greenish or white, in small axillary peduncu- 

 late clusters or cymes, without involucre ; calyx 6-parted, persistent ; stamens 12 in 4 rows, 

 those of the innermost sterile and rudimentary: anthers 4-celled. one pair above the other, 

 opening by uplifted valves: anthers of three stamens extrorse. the others mtrorse. Fruit 

 an ovoid drupe with persistent calyx at base and containing a single large seed. 



