Fraxinus 911 



This species was discovered by David Douglas in 1825 on the banks of the 

 Lower Columbia river. It is mentioned by Koch^ as having been in cultivation 

 in the Botanic Garden of Berlin prior to 1872. (A. H.) 



This tree is the common ash of north-west America, extending from Puget 

 Sound through western Washington and Oregon and the coast region of California 

 to San Francisco, and along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada to San 

 Bernardino and San Diego counties. It is an important timber tree in Oregon and 

 Washington, but if it occurs in British Columbia,^ is too scarce to be noticed by 

 Macoun. I saw no trees of great size during either of my visits to the Pacific 

 coast, but Sheldon' says that it attains as much as 100 feet in height and i to 4 feet 

 in diameter, and describes the wood as hard, tough, firm, straight-grained, and taking 

 a high polish. 



In California, according to Jepson,* F. oregona only attains a length of 15 to 30 

 feet, growing along the Sacramento river, and on the banks of the streams of the 

 coast ranges. The leaflets become glabrous with age ; and on this account Lingels- 

 heim ° has distinguished the Californian form as var. glabra. 



In England the tree grows well in a young state; but I know of none of any 

 size, except one at Nuneham Court, Oxfordshire, which in 1907 was 63 feet high 

 and 3 feet 8 inches in girth. A tree of F. americana growing near it, and believed 

 to have been planted at the same time, was only 38 feet by i foot 8 inches. Sir 

 Charles Strickland has a plantation at Hildenley, Yorkshire, of this species mixed with 

 larch ; and as these trees, when I saw them in 1901, were 20 to 30 feet high, and had 

 ripened seed from which I have raised plants, I think their hardiness in this country 

 is abundantly proved ; and that the tree is more likely to succeed in the west 

 and north of England than the eastern American ashes. At Tortworth Court 

 Lord Ducie has made a mixed plantation of F. americana and this species, which 

 are now 20 to 30 feet high at about fifteen years old ; but the soil and situation are 

 not very favourable. In 1908 the Oregon ash were bearing seed freely. 



(H. J. E.) 



' Dendrologie, ii. i, p. 260 (1872). 



2 Piper, Flora of the State of Washington, 449 (1906), says its range is " British Columbia to California, in the coast 

 region " ; but gives no localities for British Columbia. It is not mentioned as occurring in Vancouver Island by the authors 

 of Postelsia, the year-book of the Minnesota Seaside Station for 1906. 



» Forest Wealth of Oregon, 32 (1904). ' ^ Flora W. Mid. California, 385 (1901). 



6 In Engler, Bot.Jahrb. xl. 220 (1907). > o :> \ ■:> 1 



