FRAXINUS 



Fraxinus, Linnaeus, Gen. PL 318 (1737); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL ii. 676 (1876); Wenzig, 

 in Engler, Bot. Jahrb., iv. 165 (1883); Lingelsheim, in Engler, Bot. Jahrb. xl. 185 (1907). 



Trees or shrubs, belonging to the natural order Oleaceae ; leaves opposite, com- 

 pound, unequally pinnate, rarely reduced to a single leaflet ; stipules absent. Buds, 

 large terminal and small axillary, the former usually with four scales visible exter- 

 nally, the latter with two outer scales; these scales are rudimentary leaf-stalks, 

 often showing at their apex traces of the pinnate leaf, and increase in size after the 

 bud opens, falling off eventually and leaving ring-like scars at the base of the 

 shoots. 



Flowers polygamous or dioecious, in panicles or fascicled racemes, terminal on 

 leafy shoots of the year, or developed from separate buds either in the axils of the 

 leaf-scars of the previous year, or at the base of the young branchlets. Calyx absent 

 in some species ; when present, campanulate and four-lobed. Corolla absent in many 

 species ; when present, of two to four (rarely five to six) petals, free or connate in 

 pairs at the base. Stamens two, rarely three or four, affixed to the base of the 

 petals or hypogynous. Ovary, with a style divided above into a two-lobed stigma, 

 two-celled, each cell containing two pendulous ovules. Fruit, a samara, indehiscent, 

 convex or compressed below, with a dry pericarp produced into an elongated 

 terminal and more or less decurrent wing,^ usually one-celled and one-seeded. Seed 

 pendulous ; embryo erect in a fleshy albumen ; cotyledons flat. 



The genus Fraxinus is widely distributed over the temperate regions of the 

 northern hemisphere, three ^ species, however, occurring within the tropics in Cuba 

 and the Philippines, and south of the equator in Java. The genus consists of 

 nearly sixty species, many of which are imperfectly known and require further 

 study in the field. Even in the case of the Mediterranean species, authorities are at 

 variance. The present account deals only with the species which have been seen 

 in the living state. 



The genus is divided into five sections : — 



I. Ornus, Persoon, Syn. PI. ii. 605 (1807). 



Calyx and corolla both present, the calyx persisting under the samara. 

 Panicles terminal on leafy shoots or axillary on the branchlets of the current 

 year. About eighteen species. 



* Abnormal fruit with three wings, has been observed in several species, as F. americana, F. caroliniana, F. Berlandieriana. 

 2 F. caroliniana, a native of the United States, is met with in Cuba. F. Eedenii, Boerl et Koord, occurs in Java ; and 

 F. fhilippinensis, Merrill, in the Philippine Islands. 



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