OLIVE FAMILY 
RED ASH 
Fraxinus pennsylvdnica, Fraxinus pubédscens. 
A comparatively small tree, averaging forty feet high with stout 
upright branches and irregular head. Ranges from New Brunswick 
to Florida, westward to Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. 
Bark.—Brown or ashy gray with numerous longitudinal shallow 
furrows, surface scaly. Branchlets slender, terete, at first velvety- 
downy, finally they become ashy gray or light brown, frequently 
covered with bloom. Inner face of outer bark of the branches red 
or cinnamon color. 
Wood.—Light brown with lighter sapwood. Heavy, hard, strong 
and coarse-grained. Sp. gr.,0.7117; weight of cu. ft., 44.35 lbs. 
Winter Buds.—Leaf-buds small, acute, downy, dark rusty brown. 
Outer scales fall when spring growth begins. The inner scales en- 
large, become green and often leaf-like. 
Leaves.—Opposite, pinnately compound, ten to twelve 
inches long. Leaflets seven to nine, petiolate, three to 
five inches long, one to one and a half wide, oblong- 
lanceolate to ovate, unequally wedge-shaped at base, 
serrate, sometimes entire, acuminate or acute. They 
come out of the bud conduplicate, coated beneath with 
thick white tomentum, shining and hairy above; when 
full grown are firm, yellow green above, pale and vel- 
vety-downy beneath. Feather-veined, midrib and pri- 
mary veins conspicuous. In autumn they turn rusty 
brown fading into yellow. Petioles swollen at base, 
grooved, hairy. Petiolules thick, grooved, downy, about 
one-fourth of an inch long. 
Flowers.—May, with the leaves. Dicecious, borne in 
compact, downy, bracteate panicles, which appear from 
the axils of last year’s leaves. 
Calyx.—In staminate flowers cup-shaped, obscurely 
toothed. In pistillate flowers cup-shaped, deeply di- 
A Staminate yided. 
and a Pis- é 
tillate Flows Corolla.—Wanting. 
er of Red Stamens.—Two, sometimes three; anthers linear- 
Ash, Frax- oblong, pale greenish purple; filaments short. 
mus  penn- ape : : 
Sulbeibeh s Pistil,—Ovary superior, two-celled, contracted into a 
enlarged. lengthened style, divided at apex into two green stig- 
matic lobes. Ovules two in each cell. 
Fruit.—Samaras, borne in open panicles which remain on the 
branches throughout winter. ‘One to two inches long ; body slender, 
terete, half surrounded by a thin wing, rounded or acute at the apex. 
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