152 WOODS OF COMMERCE. 



with the dark brown heart. Numerous thin medullary rays. 

 Spring-wood with crowded ducts forming a narrow sharply- 

 defined zone. Moderately heavy, rather soft, not strong, but 

 tough, elastic, coarsegrained, separating easily between the rings, 

 not durable, except under water. 



Less valuable than White Ash, but much used in America for 

 furniture and interior finishing, and for fencing and hoops. The 

 Indians use it for making chair-bottoms and " splint " baskets, 

 working it " into sticks as wide along the rings as the splints are 

 to be, and perhaps two inches thick. These are then bent 

 sharply in the plane of the radius of the rings when they separate 

 into thin strips nearly or quite as many as the rings of growth" 

 (Romeyn Hough). Large wart-like swellings, or " burls," on the 

 trunk, with much contorted grain crossed by innumerable radia- 

 ting " pins," or abortive branches, form, when cut tangentially, 

 very valuable veneers. 



Swampy situations from Newfoundland and Winnipeg south- 

 ward, the most northern American Ash. 



Ash, Black (Litscea dealbdta Nees : Order Laurinece), New South 

 Wales and Queensland. Height, 100150 ft., diam. 23 ft. 

 Yellowish, streaked with brown longitudinally, fragrant, close- 

 grained, tough. Used for indoor work. The name is also 

 applied to the smaller white wood of Cupdnia semiglduca F. v. 

 Muell., the " Tyal-dyal " of New South Wales, which is not used. 



Ash, Blue (Frdxinus quadranguldta Michx : Order Oledcece). 



Dry woods in the central United States, Michigan to Tennessee, 

 best in the basin of the lower Wabash river. Height, 70 feet, 

 diam., 2 ft. Heavy, hard, and more durable, especially when 

 alternately wet and dry, than any other Ash. Valuable for 

 tool-handles, used also in carriage-making, flooring, and other 

 purposes, as is White Ash. 



Ash, Blue (Elceoddndron austrdle Vent. : Order Celastrdcece), 

 north-east Australia. Known also as " White Cedar " or 

 "Couraivo." Height, 2030 ft.; diam. 412 in. W 49'5. 

 Pinkish, close-grained, prettily marked, but liable to shakes. 

 Valuable for oars, staves, or shingles. 



