THE OLIVE FAMILY. OLEACE^ 



THIS is a very large family, all its members being trees or 

 shrubs, and many of them tropical. It has no native Canadian 

 members except the ashes, but the lilacs, introduced from Europe 

 or Asia, also belong here. 



I. THE ASHES 

 Genus Fraxinus 



The ashes are graceful forest trees with straight trunks, 

 rather thin, rough, scaly, gray bark and opposite compound 

 leaves with from three to eleven leaflets. The flowers are 

 small, inconspicuous, mostly with no petals and appear with 

 or before the leaves. The fruit is a single samara, the wing 

 at least partly surrounding the seed. 



The wood is light, straight-grained and splits easily. In 

 some species it is strong and much valued for handles of forks 

 and other similar tools. 



i. BLACK ASH. Fraxinus nigra. Marshall. 



The black ash is a tree of the swamps or low places. It 

 often grows eighty feet high, with a stout straight trunk, 

 covered with thin, gray, scaly bark, not broken into distinct 

 ridges. The leaflets number from seven to eleven, and all 

 except the terminal one are sessile. The wing of the samara 

 runs entirely around the seed. 



The wood is tough but weak, and splits very freely along the 

 grain. It was formerly the timber most used by the cooper. 



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