STUDIES OF TREES IN WINTER 



green ash, which used to be considered a dis- 

 tinct species, is now thought to be a variety of 

 the red ash. 

 All the ashes have opposite leaf-scars. 



White or ^ ^ ar S e tree m '^ a straight 

 American Ash trunk. Bark furrowed with ir- 



Fraxinu* americana ^^ ^^ ^ /^^ j Qrm _ 



ing diamond shapes frequently. Buds smooth, 

 thick and hard like leather, and a rusty brown 

 color. Twigs smooth, without down. Leaf- 

 scars opposite, and the stems are flattened at the 

 nodes. Cross-shaped branching of the twigs 

 against the sky. 



The white ash is a tree which we find fre- 

 quently along roadsides and in the woods 

 everywhere in New England. The character- 

 istics which distinguish it from other trees in 

 winter are the close diamond-shaped fissures of 

 the bark, the rusty brown buds, and often the 

 old clusters of paddle-shaped fruit hanging on 

 the tree. On some ash trees black, berry-like 

 excrescences are found hanging in dry clusters 

 on the ends of the branches. These are not 

 clusters of fruit, as might at first be supposed, 

 but the diseased and undeveloped remains of 

 the panicles of staminate flowers which have 

 been injured by mites, curious freaks resem- 

 bling oak-apples and the outgrowths of other 



