OREGON ash. 109 



white flowers, as it were, poured out, and in pretty profusion 

 cascading the twigs with their tidy, graceful falling fringes 

 everywhere adorning her mantle. Separately considered, 

 each flower consists of two petals, one quarter to one half 

 an inch long, on short claws from a minute cup. scarcely vis- 

 ibly four-toothed : the short stamen threads and anthers, two 

 to four, about equal in length. Fruit, narrowly spatulate, 

 oblong, one inch or so, mostly slightly notched at the end; 

 base, sharp-edged, and in one form wing-margined to the base, 

 with broader obegg-form ash-key: found further south, this 

 has but three leaflets, quite exceptional to the common 

 California type. 



This pinnate or feather-like foliage, unlike other kinds of 

 Ash, takes on autumnal tints of prevailing yellow, as the 

 wild woodlands are wont, in the beautiful sylvan sunset, 

 when their day draweth nigh unto its close. Then the little 

 leaflets oft fall away from the main mother stalk, parting at 

 the joints; they seem, however, less unanimous in their 

 final adieu. 



The Fringe Flowering Ash, as we have seen, is of such 

 small size and great beauty, light but ample foliage, and del- 

 icate shade, rounded top, sightly body, cheerful bark, dry 

 upland and hill habit, inland and occupant of hotter vales, 

 and every way so well suited to adorn rural walks, and out- 

 side landscape; it would really seem that the neglect to cul- 

 tivate it, hitherto, is more due to want of requisite knowledge 

 than to proper appreciation. 



We have not dwelt upon the value of the timber specifically, 

 for too little that is reliable has come to our knowledge. 



OREGON ASH. 



(Fraxinus Oregana.) 



"Welcome, ye shades of Ashes wild; along the dale, 



With woods o'er hung — * * 



Whence on each hand the gushing waters play." — Thompson. 



THE principal Pacific Ash of California and Oregon is 

 not in general quite so large as the Eastern White Ash 

 (F. acuminata) of the upper Mississippi Valley, but rela- 

 tive to diameter is taller and more elm-like in elegance; the 

 branches here are seldom huge in the oaken or Eastern ashen 

 sense, but the divisions above are upright or erect-spreading 

 aloft, into easy-sweeping, plumy-curved branches, a few of the 

 lower only reaching moderately towards the horizon, with 



