FOTHERGILLA FRAXINUS 561 



F. MAJOR, Loddiges. 



(F. alnifoiia var. major, Bot. Mag., t. 1342 ; F. monticola, Ashe.} 



A deciduous shrub, ultimately 6 to 8 ft. high, forming a rounded bush with 

 mostly erect stems ; young branchlets covered with stellate, whitish hairs. 

 Leaves roundish oval or broadly ovate, 2 to 4 ins. long, and from two-thirds 

 to nearly as wide, with a few teeth above the middle, or almost entire ; upper 

 surface dark glossy green becoming almost or quite smooth, lower one 

 glaucous, with stellate hairs, especially on the midrib and veins ; stalk downy, 

 about A in. long. Flowers numerous, in an erect, cylindrical spike, I to 2 ins. 

 long, terminating short lateral twigs ; the inflorescence owes its beauty to 

 the numerous clustered stamens, which have pinkish white stalks f in. long, 

 and yellow anthers ; petals none. The seed-vessel is a downy, woody 

 capsule ^ in. long, splitting at the top. 



Native of the Allegheny Mountains from Virginia to S. Carolina ; grown 

 in English gardens in 1780, but apparently long lost to cultivation until 



FuTHERGILLA MAJOR. 



reintroduccd to Kew from the Arnold Arboretum in 1902. It is a most 

 charming shrub, especially to those who love out-of-the-way plants. It 

 succeeds extremely well in a mixture of peat and sandy loam, producing 

 its fragrant spikes profusely in May. The leaves turn orange-yellow before 

 falling. It strikes root freely from cuttings of fairly firm wood in gentle 

 heat, and is quite hardy. Certainly it is in every way superior to the 

 commoner F. Gardeni, and it is strange that it was so long lost to gardens. 

 F. MOXTICOLA is scarcely specifically distinct from F. major, although it 

 is said to be of more spreading habit ; the leaves are not so white beneath. 



FR AX IX US. ASH. OLEACE^E. 



A group of some forty to fifty species of deciduous trees and a few 

 shrubs, all except three found in the temperate latitudes of the northern 

 hemisphere. They have normally opposite, unequally pinnate leaves, but 

 in some species and varieties the leaflets are reduced to one, and the 

 leaves are sometimes in whorls of three, and on odd shoots not in- 



2 N 



