OLIVE FAMILY 



RED ASH 



Fraxinus pennsylvdnica. Frdxinus pube'scens. 



A comparatively small tree, averaging forty feet high with stout 

 upright branches and irregular head. Ranges from New Brunswick 

 to Florida, westward to Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. 



Bark. Brown or ashy gray with numerous longitudinal shallow 

 furrows, surface scaly. Branchlets slender, terete, at first velvety- 

 downy, finally they become ashy gray or light brown, frequently 

 covered with bloom. Inner face of outer bark of the branches red 

 or cinnamon color. 



Wood. Light brown with lighter sapwood. Heavy, hard, strong 

 and coarse-grained. Sp. gr., 0.7117; weight of cu. ft., 44.35 Ibs. 



Winter Buds. Leaf-buds small, acute, downy, dark rusty brown. 

 Outer scales fall when spring growth begins. The inner scales en- 

 large, become green and often leaf-like. 



Leaves. Opposite, pinnately compound, ten to twelve 

 inches long. Leaflets seven to nine, petiolate, three to 

 five inches long, one to one and a half wide, oblong- 

 lanceolate to ovate, unequally wedge-shaped at base, 

 serrate, sometimes entire, acuminate or acute. They 

 come out of the bud conduplicate, coated beneath with 

 thick white -tomentum, shining and hairy above ; when 

 full grown are firm, yellow green above, pale and vel- 

 vety-downy beneath. Feather-veined, midrib and pri- 

 mary veins conspicuous. In autumn they turn rusty 

 brown fading into yellow. Petioles swollen at base, 

 grooved, hairy. Petiolules thick, grooved, downy, about 

 one-fourth of an inch long. 



Flowers. May, with the leaves. Dioecious, borne in 

 compact, downy, bracteate panicles, which appear from 

 the axils of last year's leaves. 



Calyx. In staminate flowers cup-shaped, obscurely 

 toothed. In pistillate flowers cup-shaped, deeply di- 

 vided. 



Corolla. Wanting. 



Stamens. Two, sometimes three ; anthers linear- 

 oblong, pale greenish purple ; filaments short. 



Pistil. Ovary superior, two-celled, contracted into a 

 lengthened style, divided at apex into two green stig- 

 matic lobes. Ovules two in each cell. 

 Fruit. Samaras, borne in open panicles which remain on the 

 branches throughout winter. One to two inches long ; body slender, 

 terete, half surrounded by a thin wing, rounded or acute at the apex. 



212 



A Staminate 

 and a Pis- 

 tillate Flow- 

 er of Red 

 Ash, Frax- 

 inus penn- 

 sylvanica ; 

 enlarged. 



