OLIVE FAMILY 
In general appearance the Red and the White Ash strongly 
resemble each other. But the Red Ash is downy on branch- 
let and leaf and petiole while the 
White Ash is in the main smooth, 
Its specific name fenusvlvanica em- 
phasizes the fact that it is a tree of 
the North Atlantic states and grows 
best east of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains. It approaches the Black Ash 
in its preference for rich, low, moist 
soils, the banks of streams and the 
shores of lakes, but unlike it, will 
grow in dry localities. The wood is 
not so valuable as that of the White 
Ash, being brittle instead of elastic. 
Samaras of Red Ash, Fraxinus The Green Ash, /&. danceolata, 
pennsylvanica. 
which is now considered a variety 
of the Red Ash, may be distinguished from it by its dark 
and lustrous foliage, by the smoothness of its leaves and 
branchlets and the bright green both of the upper and lower 
surface of the leaves. In New England there are marked 
differences, but west of the Mississippi the two are connected 
by intermediate forms which blend them together. 
The Green Ash is recommended for parks, streets, and 
shelter belts in the western states, largely because of its abil- 
ity to flourish in regions of small and uncertain rainfall. 
BLUE ASH 
Fréxinus quadrangulata. 
A tall slender tree, sometimes one hundred and twenty feet in 
height with a trunk two or three feet in diameter, usually much small- 
er. Native of the Mississippi valley, nowhere very abundant, prefers 
lime-stone soils. 
Bark.—Light gray tinged with red, irregularly fissured. Branch- 
lets, stout, four-angled, more or less four-winged, at first orange 
color with rusty pubescence, later thev become light brown or ashy 
gray and gradually terete. 
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