Fringe Tree 



813 



III. FRINGE TREE 



GENUS CHIONANTHUS LINN^US 

 Species Chionanthus virginica Linnaeus 



HIS beautiful tree or shrub is indigenous from southern New Jersey 

 and southeastern Pennsylvania to Florida and westward to Tennessee, 

 Arkansas and Texas; it is so well known as to have received many 

 common names, such as Old man's beard, White fringe, American 

 fringe, Flowering ash, and Snowflower tree; its maximum height is 10 meters, with 

 a tamk diameter up to 2.5 dm. 



The trunk is short; the branches are stout and ascending. The bark is 6 to 

 12 mm. thick, fissured into small, thin, close 

 scales of a reddish brown color. The twigs 

 are stout, sHghtly angled, green, usually haiiy, 

 becoming round, smooth, and Ught brown. 

 The buds are ovoid, sharp-pointed, about 3 

 mm. long. The stalked leaves are thickish, 

 oval, oblong-elhptic or ovate, 5 to 15 cm. long, 

 rounded, sharp or taper-pointed at each end, 

 yellowish green at first, becoming darker 

 green and shining above, paler and smooth 

 except along the prominent venation beneath ; 

 they become bright yellow and fall in the 

 early autumn. The fragrant flowers appear 

 from April to June, dependent upon latitude; 

 they are perfect or polygamous, in axillary, 

 hairy, nodding panicles i to 2 dm. long, 

 bracted at each division, the ultimate divi- ^^' ^'^S- nnge 



sions being 3-flowTred; the very small calyx is green, smooth, cup-shaped, deeply 

 4-lobed; the corolla is 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, its sharp, Hnear lobes slightly spreading 

 and joined into a very short tube at the base; the 2, rarely 4, stamens are joined 

 to the base of the corolla-tube, their filaments short and included, the anthers light 

 yellow; the ovary is 2-celled; style short, stout, with a 2-lobed stigma; ovules 2 in 

 each cavity. The fruit, borne in loose clusters, is oblong or oval-oblong, 1.5 to 2 

 cm. long, dark purple or nearly black, often with a bloom; its skin is thick, the 

 flesh thin and dr}dsh; stone brittle, usually i-seeded; seed ovate, 16 cm. long. 



Its wood is close-grained, hght brown, with a specific gravity of about 0.64. 

 The bark is sometimes used as a tonic. The Fringe tree is much planted in gar- 

 dens from Massachusetts southward; its only objectionable feature is the limited 

 time in which it remains in foHage, as it is one of the most tardy to come into full 

 leaf in spring and among the very first to lose its foliage in the autumn. 



The genus, of which the Fringe tree is the type, is a small one, only 2 species 



