Handbook of Tbees of the Noetheen States and Canada. 



390 



The Biltmore Ash is a tree of raediuin sizi, 

 not often surpassing 40 ov 50 ft. in height or 

 12 or 15 in. in thickness of trunk, and when 

 not crowded by other trees develops an opiii 

 -sj-mmetrical ovoid or rounded top, of stout 

 spreading brandies. Its bark is of a dark 

 gray color, fissured in rather narrow somewhat 

 reticulate ridges, very much resembling tliat of 

 the White Ash, as it does also in the quality 

 of its wood and other characters, excepting the 

 amount of pubescence of its foliage and brancli- 

 lets. It inhabits the rich well-drained soil of 

 slopes and the banks of streams, or occasionally 

 low-lands, of the foot-hill region of the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains, from Pennsylvania to North- 

 ern Georgia and Alabama. For its discovery 

 we are indebted to Prof. C. D. Beadle, Botanist 

 at the Biltmore forest estate of Mr. Geo. W. 

 Vanderbilt, where it is a common tree, and 

 he has appropriately given it the name of the 

 estate. 



Its wood is heavy, hard, strong, tougli and 

 of a pinkish brown color, with abundant lighter 

 sap-wood, and is suitable for the uses to which 

 the White Ash wood is applied. i 



Leaves 10-1.^ in. long, with 7-!) ovate or ovatf- 

 oblon? to lanceolate somewhat falcate lonjr- 

 petiolulate leaflets, 3-7 in. long, obtuse or 

 rounded at base, acuminate, with entire or ob- 

 scurely denticulate margins and at maturity firm 

 dark green above, paler and pubescent especially 

 on the veins beneath : branchlets velvety pubescent. 

 Floirers early in May. in rather compact pubescent 

 panicles. Fruit: samaras \y^-\% in. long, linear 

 or linear-spatulate with wing 2 or .S times as 

 long and very slightly decurrent upon the nearly 

 terete narrowly elliptic seed-bearing portion. 



1. A. W., xn, 1!87. 



