358 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



to plantings. It has proved a very satisfactory tree in this 

 section, and has endured drouth well at the Minnesota Experi- 

 ment Station and at the Coteau Farm in Lyon county, Minne- 

 sota, and in South Dakota. 



OLEACEAE. OLIVE FAMILY* 



Genus FRAXINUS. 



Leaves opposite, petioled, odd-pinnate with three to fifteen 

 toothed or entire leaflets. Flowers small, dioecious or polyga- 

 mous and apetalous in racemes or panicles from the axils of 

 last year's leaves; stamens two; ovary two-celled. Fruit a 

 flattened samara, winged at the apex, usually one-seeded. 



Propagation. By seed, which may be sown as gathered in 

 autumn, or which may be stratified over winter and sown in 

 in the spring. A good way to keep these seeds over winter is 

 to place them on the surface of a garden walk, putting a box 

 over them and cutting a trench around the box to keep the 

 water away. They will not grow if kept too dry. 



Fraxinus americana. White Ash. 



Leaves with seven to nine leaflets, which are usually rounded 

 at the base and generally entire in outline or very slightly ser- 

 rate. Flowers dioecious, appearing with or rather before the 

 leaves. Fruit ripe in autumn, cylindrical and winged at one 

 end and surrounded at the base by the persistent calyx. The 

 bark on the young twigs is rather dark, nearly smooth and free 

 from spots. A large and valuable tree, commonly confounded 

 in this section with the Green Ash and the Red Ash, both of 

 which, however, are smaller trees and much hardier, produce 

 seed at an earlier age and in larger quantities, and altogether 

 are better adapted to prairie planting than the White Ash. 



Distribution. From Nova Scotia west to northern Minne- 

 sota and eastern Nebraska and south to northern Florida and 

 Texas. In Minnesota the White Ash appears to be a rare tree. 

 In the western part of the state and in the Dakotas it is wholly 

 replaced by Green Ash, or what seems to be a hopeless mixture 

 of Green Ash and Red Ash, 



