OLEACE^E. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 357 



1. O. A ill eric alia, L. (DEVIIXWOOD.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 

 smooth and shining (3' -6' long); fruit spherical. Moist woods, coast of S. 

 Virginia, and southward. May. Tree 15 -20 high. 



3. CHIONANTHUS, L. FRINGE-TREE. 



Calyx 4-parted, very small, persistent. Corolla of 4. long and linear petals, 

 which are barely united at the base. Stamens 2 (rarely 3 or 4), on the very 

 base of the corolla, very short. Stigma notched. Drupe fleshy, globular, be- 

 coming 1 -celled, 1-3 -seeded. Low trees or shrubs, with deciduous and entire 

 petioled leaves, and delicate flowers in loose and drooping graceful panicles. 

 (Name from \io>v, snow, and avQos, blossom, alluding to the light and snow- 

 white clusters of flowers.) 



1. C. Virgiiiica, L. Leaves oval, oblong, or obovate-lanceolate, smooth- 

 ish or rather downy, veiny ; flowers on slender pedicels ; drape purple, with a 

 bloom, ovoid (' - f ' long). Kiver-banks, S. Pennsylvania, Virginia, and south- 

 ward: very ornamental in cultivation. June. Petals about 1' long, narrowly 

 linear, acute, rarely 5 - 6 in number. 



4. FRAXINUS, Town. ASH. 



Flowers polygamous or (in our species) dioecious. Calyx small and 4-clcft, 

 toothed, or entire, or obsolete. Petals 4, slightly cohering in pairs at the base, 

 or only 2, oblong or linear, or altogether wanting in our species. Stamens 2, 

 sometimes 3 or 4 : anthers linear or oblong, large. Style single : stigma 2-cleft. 

 Fruit a 1 - 2-celled samara, or key-fruit flattened, winged at the apex, 1 - 2-seeded. 

 Cotyledons elliptical : radicle slender. Light timber-trees, with petioled pin- 

 nate leaves of 3 - 15 either toothed or entire leaflets ; the small flowers in crowd- 

 ed panicles or racemes from the axils of last year's leaves. (The classical Latin 

 name, thought to be derived from <f)pats, a separation, from the facility with 

 which the wood splits.) 



* Fruit winged from, the apex only, barely margined or terete towards the base : calyx 

 minute, persistent : corolla none : leaflets stalked. 



1. F. Americana, L. (WHITE ASH.) Branchlets and petioles glabrous ; 

 leaflets 7-9, ovate- or lance-oblong, pointed, pale and either smooth or pubes- 

 cent underneath, somewhat toothed or entire ; fruit terete and marginless below, 

 above extended into a lanceolate, oblanceolate, or wedge-linear wing. (F. acuminata, 

 and F. juglandifolia, Lam. F. epiptera, Michx.) Rich or moist woods; com- 

 mon. April, May. A large forest tree, with gray furrowed bark, smooth 

 greenish-gray branchlets, and rusty-colored buds. (The figure of the fruit in 

 Michaux's Sylva is misplaced, it apparently having been interchanged with 

 that of the Green Ash.) 



2. F. pubeSCCnS, Lam. (RED ASH.) Branchlets and petioles velvety- 

 pubescent ; leaflets 7-9, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed, almost entire, 

 pale or more or less pubescent beneath ; fruit acute at tfie base,Jlattish and 2-edged, 

 the edges gradually dilated into the long (l'-2') oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate 



