OLIVE FAMILY 
Flowers.—May, before the leaves; Dicecious, borne in lengthened 
panicles near the end of the branches, in axils of Jast year’s leaves. 
Pedicels smooth; bracts varying in size and form. 
Calyx.—Campanulate; in staminate flower slightly 
four-lobed ; in pistillate flower deeply lobed. 
Corolla.—Wanting. 
Stamens.—Two, rarely three; filaments, short; an- 
thers large, oblong, reddish purple. 
Pistil—Ovary superior, two-celled, oval, contracted 
into a long slender style, with two spreading dark pur- 
ple stigmatic lobes. 
Fruit.—Samaras, borne in crowded drooping pan- 
icles six to eight inches long, these hang upon the leafless 
branches until midwinter. The samaras vary in length 
from one to two inches. Body terete, pointed, margin- 
less below, abruptly dilated into a lanceolate or linear 
wing, acute or emarginate at apex. August, Septem- 
ber. Cotyledons elliptical. 
The White Ash is the 
A Staminate most beautiful of all the 
and a Pis- i : 
tillateFlow- American species. Its 
er of White 
Ash. Frax. COMmon name refers to 
inus ameri- the pale sometimes silvery 
cana ; en- 
larged. under surface of the leaf 
and its specific name amer- 
tcana fully distinguishes it as the best 
of its type. Its fibrous roots enable 
it to flourish in a soil, rich but shal- 
low, and oftentimes it may be seen 
clinging to rocks where with diff- 
culty it can obtain a foothold. In 
the east:rn and middle states it has 
proved itself an admirable city tree, 
out it has not been successfully 
planted in the prairie regions of the 
west, being unable to withstand the 
severe droughts to which they are 
subject. 
In appearance the young tree is singularly graceful. The 
slender grayish trunk, the easy sweep of its branches, the 
Samaras of White Ash, Fraxinus 
americana. 
208 
