FRAXINUS 571 



cultivation. It is a tree 80 to 90 ft. high in a wild state, and grows in damp 

 situations ; young shoots smooth. Leaflets seven to eleven, oblong or oblong 

 lance-shaped, slender-pointed, 3 to 5 ins. long, I to 2 ins. wide ; smooth 

 on both surfaces except for reddish down along the side of the midrib and 

 veins, beneath which it is densest towards the base, and extends round the 

 main-stalk. All the leaflets except the terminal ones are stalkless even 

 more distinctly so than in F. mandshurica. In many of its characters the black 

 ash is similar to F. mandshurica ; the leaflets, however, are much less tapered 

 or even rounded at the base, and the marginal teeth are shallow and quite 

 inconspicuous. It has little interest or value in gardens. 



F. OBLIQUA, Tausch. 



(F. Willdenowiana, Koehne ; F. rotundifolia, Hort.^ not Lamarck?) 



A small tree free from down in all parts, forming a rounded, dense head of 

 branches ; young shoots with small white warts. Leaves often in threes, 

 9 to 12 ins. long; leaflets usually nine or eleven, sometimes seven, scarcely 

 stalked, ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 3^ ins. long, f to i in. wide ; tapered at the 

 base, long-pointed, rather coarsely triangular-toothed ; the terminal one "is up 

 to 5 ins. long and i\ ins. wide, the others decreasing in size successively 

 towards the base. The main-stalk has a continuous groove on the upper side, 

 which, with the large terminal leaflet, distinguishes this from the other ashes 

 with perfectly smooth shoots and leaves. Fruit I lin. long, \ in. wide, 

 pointed. 



This ash was named obliqua by Tausch in 1834 (see Flora, xvii., p. 521), 

 at which time it was in cultivation as F. rotundifolia, a name which clung to 

 it for over seventy years, for plants so-called were in the Kew collection 

 until a few years ago. According to Lingelsheim, a recent monographer of 

 the ashes, it is a native of the eastern Mediterranean region and W. Asia, but 

 a curious uncertainty as to its origin has always prevailed. Tausch thought 

 it came from North America. 



F. OREGONA Nuttall. OREGON ASH. 



A tree up to 80 ft. high ; young shoots reddish brown, rough with minute 

 warts, more or less downy, sometimes densely so. Leaves 6 ins. to over I ft. 

 long ; leaflets five or seven, oval or oblong, 2 to 5 ins. long, i to 2 ins. broad ; 

 tapered or sometimes rounded at the base, contracted at the apex to a short 

 or slender point ; margins entire or obscurely toothed ; dark green and with 

 thin down above, pale and densely downy beneath. Main-stalk very pale, 

 downy, grooved above ; stalk of the terminal leaflets up to i in. long ; lateral 

 leaflets very shortly or not at all stalked. Flowers without petals, produced 

 on the previous year's shoots. Fruit \\ to 2 ins. long, \ in. wide towards 

 the apex. 



Native of Western N. America, where it is a valuable timber tree. It was 

 discovered by Douglas in 182$, but does not seem to have been introduced 

 until many years after. It was in cultivation at Kew about forty years ago, 

 and trees up to 40 ft. high are very healthy and handsome. The finest tree 

 known to Mr Elwes is at Nuneham, and now about 65 ft. high. It is distin- 

 guished among ashes that, like itself, have all the young vegetative parts 

 downy, by the large size of the stalkless or nearly stalkless, scarcely toothed 

 side leaflets. 



Yar. PULVERULENTA, Hort Leaflets specked with grey. A tree at Kew 

 is very vigorous, but this marking spoils rather than improves it. 



