294 Oleacetz Fraxin us. 



2. F. rotundifolia. Manna Ash. Very near the foregoing, 

 but having less conspicuous flowers and more rounded sessile 

 leaflets. South of Europe. 



3. F. excelsior. Common Ash. This handsome native 

 tree differs from the above in having apetalous flowers with 

 purplish black stamens. The smooth ash-grey bark, pinnate 

 leaves and black buds distinguish it from all our other native 

 trees. The Weeping Ash is a variety of this, and was first 

 discovered in Cambridgeshire about a century since. There 

 is also a gold- barked variety both erect and pendulous, and 

 there are gold and silver striped and blotched varieties. 

 The form called monophylla, or heterophylla, is singular in 

 having most of the leaves reduced to a single leaflet, which is 

 nearly entire or finely cut, as in the variety called laciniata. 

 The variety crispa is more curious than beautiful,, having very 

 dark green curled foliage. 



F. lentiscifolia. A smaller tree with long slender branches 

 and distant leaves composed of few long narrow remote leaflets. 

 A native of the Levant, of which there is a weeping form. F. 

 longicuspis is a recently introduced Japanese tree with two. or 

 three pairs of lanceolate very acuminate leaflets. 



The North American species are numerous, but offer no 

 novelty or variety, and are only grown in collections or on a 

 small scale for their timber, for which purpose, however, they 

 have not proved superior to the common one. 



There are many fine old tretfs of the common form scattered 

 over England, some nearly a hundred feet high, notably one at 

 Woburn and another at Cury. 



5. SYRlNGA. 



Deciduous shrubs bearing simple entire leaves and large 

 terminal clusters of usually sweet-smelling flowers. Corolla 

 salver-shaped. Fruit a flattened 2-celled capsule, when ripe 

 splitting into two boat-shaped pieces, each containing one or 

 two winged seeds. Only about half a dozen species are known 

 to exist in a wild state, and these are found in South-eastern 

 Europe, Persia, Northern India and China. The name is said 

 to be an altered form of the Persian Syrinx, which is applied 

 to the common one. 



1. 8. vulgaris. Common Lilac. This, with the Laburnum, 

 forms the chief attraction of our shrubberies in Spring, and we 

 should as soon expect to see a garden without a Lilac as with- 



