Handbook of Tkees gi? the ISToetiieen States and Canada. 389 



This interesting and latlur uncommon Ash 

 oi.-casionally attains tlie height of 120 ft. or 

 more, with trunk 3 or 4 ft. in diameter in 

 the forests of the rich valleys of southern 

 Indiana and Illinois, but elsewhere does not 

 often surpass 75 ft. in height or 2% ft. in 

 diameter of trunk. Its peculiar scaly bark is 

 a fe^xture which at once distinguishes it in t'le 

 eye of the woodman, and on very old trunks is 

 especially interesting, the long loose plates 

 giving it an even more s'.iaggy appearance than 

 those of the Shag-bark Hickory. 



It inhabits mostly dry limestone ridgss and 

 uplands, in company with the White Ash, 

 Te.vas, Chinquapin and other Oaks, Woolly 

 P.umelia, Red-bud, various Hickories, etc., and 

 is occasionally found in the more moist bottom- 

 lands. It is called the Blue Ash on account of 

 a blue dye which may be made by mascerating 

 the inner bark in water. The 4-angled nature 

 of the twigs constitute a character by which 

 it may be easily recognized. 



The wood is heavy, a cubic foot, when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighing 44.77 lbs., rather hard and 

 strong and is used in the manufacture of floor- 

 ing, agricultural implements, etc.i 



Leaves 8-12 in. long with 7-9 ovate-oblong to 

 lanceolate short-petiolulate leaflets 3-.5 in. long, un- 

 equally rounded or obtuse at base, long-acumi- 

 nate, closely serrate, tomentose at first but at 

 maturity glabrous, dark yellow green above, paler 

 and glabrous or hairy-tufted in the axils of the 

 veins beneath. Flowers perfect, in loose panicles: 

 calvx almost obsolete : corolla none ; stamens 2 

 with dark purple oblong anther-cells. Fruit 

 linear-oblong. 1-2 in. Ions, winged all around, 

 parallel-veined and the body extending more than 

 half way to the cmarginate apex. 



1. .\. W.. XI, 26.3. 



