Gregg's Ash 



8ii 



21. FRINGE-FLOWERED ASH — Frarinus dipetala Hooker and Arnott 



A Califomian shrub, not definitely known to form a tree, with spreading stems 4 meters 

 long or less. It ranges from central California southward along the mountains to Lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



The young twigs are somewhat 4-sided, and smooth. The leaves are smooth, or very minutely 

 hairy when they first appear, and have from 3 to 9 long-stalked leaflets, which are oval, oblong 

 or oblong-obovate, blunt or pointed, 1.5 to 6 cm. long, 5 to 25 mm. wide, thick, dark green above, 

 rather paler beneath. The flowers are borne in large panicles at the leaf scars of the previous 

 season and are perfect, or rarely polygamous; they have a slightly 4-toothed calyx and 2 white, 

 oblong-obovate blimt petals with short claws; the 2 stamens are about as long as the petals, with 

 slender filaments. The samaras are oblong to oblong-spatulate, 2 to 3 cm. long, 5 to 8 mm. 

 wide, the very flat seed-bearing part striate, the thin, blunt, or notched wing decurrent on its 

 edges to about the middle. 



22. GREGG'S ASH— Fraxmus Greggii A. Gray 



Gregg's ash is a very interesting little tree or 

 large shrub of southwestern Texas and northern 

 Mexico. It attains a maximum height of about 

 8 meters, when its trunk is about 2 dm. thick. 



The bark is thin, gray and scaly. The young 

 twigs are round and minutely hairy, but soon 

 become smooth and gray. The peculiar leaves 

 have the petiole and rachis narrowly wing-mar- 

 gined ; the 3 to 7 strictly sessile, small leaflets are 

 spatulate to ojjlong-obovate, smooth, rather blunt, 

 thick, dark green above, paler and minutely pitted 

 (under a lens) beneath, entire-margined, or few- 

 toothed above the middle, i to 2.5 cm. long, 3 to 

 6 mm. wide, more or less wedge-shaped at the 

 base. The flowers have not yet been obtained 

 by botanists. The samaras are in small clusters 

 in the axils of the leaves, linear or somewhat 

 spatulate, 1.5 to 2 cm. long, about 3 mm. wide, the plump seed-bearing part 

 much shorter than the blunt or notched wing, on which the 2 -cleft style is some- 

 times persistent. 



Fig. 743. — Gregg's Ash. 



