OLEACEAE 127 



rays; rather slender terete twigs; small rounded continuous 

 pith; alternate small somewhat raised half-round leaf-scars 

 with a single curved bundle-trace; no stipule-scars; ovoid 

 appressed superposed buds with 2-3 exposed scales; moderate 

 short-petioled nearly entire leaves; rather small perfect bell- 

 shaped gamopetalous flow r ers in leafy racemes; and dry lew- 

 seeded small fruit. 



1. Leaves tomentose beneath. S. grandifolia 

 Leaves glabrate beneath. 2. 



2. Pedicels for a time somewhat scurfy. S. americana. 

 Pedicels glabrous. S. japonica. 



Family OLEACEAE. Olive Family. 



A moderate-sized family yielding the picklecl olives and 

 olive-oil of commerce, ash lumber, etc., and including a num- 

 ber of the most prized decorative shrubs. 



FRAXINUS. Ash. 



Deciduous rather large trees with hard white or brownish 

 wood with a crowded vernal zone of moderately large ducts, 

 fewer and smaller ducts in a more or less marked transverse 

 wavy pattern in the summer wood, and numerous fine medul- 

 lary rays; rather stout more or less compressed twigs; ellipti- 

 cal or 6-sided rather large pale homogeneous pith; opposite 

 large low shield-shaped or half-round leaf-scars with many 

 bundle-traces in a single aggregate series; no stipule-scars; 

 sessile often superposed rounded buds with 1 or 2 exposed 

 pairs of scales; normally odd-pinnate large stalked leaves; 

 small mostly imperfect and apetalous flowers in lateral clus 

 ters; and winged fruits. 



1. Twigs acutely 4-angled, or 4-winged: buds gray: 



fruit broad, winged all around. F. quadrangulata. 



Twigs not acutely angled. 2. 



2. Buds blue-black: leaflets sessile: fruit broad, winged 



all around. (European ash). 3.' 

 Buds brown: leaflets stalked: fruit narrow, winged 

 principally at the end. 11. 



