Biltmore Ash 



809 



The wood is hard, strong and brown, with a specific gravity of 0.76, and is 

 locally used in carpentry. The species is closely related to the White ash {Fraxinus 

 americana Linnaeus). 



18. WHITE ASH — Fraxinua americana Linnaeus 



The White ash, or Canadian ash as it is often called, ranges from Nova Scotia 

 to Minnesota, and southward to Florida, 

 Kansas, and Texas. It prefers rich soil 

 on hillsides, attaining a maximum height 

 of about 40 meters, and a trunk diameter 

 of 2 meters. Its bark is thick, gray-brown 

 and fissured. 



Its young twigs and leaf-stalks are 

 smooth or nearly so, but the imder sur- 

 faces of the leaflets, which are much paler 

 than the upper surfaces, vary from smooth 

 to quite hairy. The leaves usually have 

 7 leaflets (5 to 9) ; these are sharp-pointed, 

 lanceolate to obovate, finely toothed or en- 

 tire-margined, and 7 to 15 cm. long. The 

 staminate and pistillate flowers are usually 

 borne on different trees (dioecious), but 

 they are occasionally found in the same 

 cluster (monoecious). The samaras are spatulate to nearly linear, 2 to 5 cm. long, 

 the seed-bearing part plump, round in section (terete) and marginless, the wing 

 arising near its top and twice to four times its length. 



The tree is of rapid growth, usually free from fungus diseases and from insect 

 depredations ; it is thus well adapted to street and park planting, the chief draw- 

 back of the Ashes for these purposes being the lateness of the leaves to unfold in 

 the spring and their early falling away in the autumn. Its wood is light brown, 

 strong, tough, with a specific gravity of 0.65, and is largely utilized in building, 

 for handles of tools, implements and furniture. 



Fig. 740. — ; White Ash. 



19. BILTMORE ASH — Fraxinus biltmoi«ana Beadle 



This relative of the White ash is known to grow from southern Pennsylvania 

 to Georgia. It was distinguished from Fraxinus americana by Mr. C. D. Beadle 

 in 1898, in the course of his studies of trees about Biltmore, North Carolina. 



It differs from this tree in having the young twigs, leaf-stalks and leaf-axis 

 permanently rather densely hairy, and the 7 to 9 large leaflets are very hairy on 

 the under side in all the specimens seen by us. The dioecious flowers are in more 

 or less hairy panicles, the staminate ones with a very small, minutely toothed 



