creswell] THE AMERICAN ASH 281 



The dainty ash at length receives 

 Her graceful garment of leaves." 



sings the impractical poet; Tennyson also reminds us of its late 

 opening when he speaks of a lady who did not yield to wooing in 

 comparison with ash; 



"Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, 

 Delaying as the tender ash delays 

 To clothe herself, when all the woods are green?" 



The result is worth the waiting. For a time it is clad in an exqui- 

 site garment of filmy lacy pale green. Soon the foliage takes on a 

 firmer texture and becomes a smooth deep green showing slightly 

 paler beneath. The compound leaves. are in pairs mostly near 

 the ends of the branches, hence it always has an open effect when 

 viewed from below. 



The leaves are from eight to twelve inches long with stout 

 petioles and five to nine leaflets each on its own short petiole. 

 The leaflets are from three to five inches long and half as broad, 

 taper pointed, entire or indistinctly serrate. The end one is the 

 largest and the basal pair, the smallest. 



Along with the lacework of leaves come the flowers. The deep 

 blackish purple clusters of staminate flowers are on one tree and 

 the loose drooping wiry-looking boquets of purplish green pistillate 

 blossoms are on another tree. The staminate flowers have not 

 much beauty to boast of. They are a clustered mass of simple 

 flowers, each consisting of a tiny calyx and two or three stamens 

 with stout thick anthers and very short filaments. The blackish 

 purple tint gives way to pale gold as the anthers open and display 

 their wealth of pollen to the spring breezes. The pistillate flowers 

 are also only the calyx and essential pistil, a tiny urn sitting on a 

 pedicel, or rather pedicel and urn both hang in almost any direc- 

 tion. The stigmas are two, long and dark purple in color, placed 

 right on top of the ovary. Two tiny seedlets reside inside the urn 

 but only one gets a chance to grow. The ash does not offer special 

 attractions to the insects to get them to carry her pollen but 

 depends upon the fickle wind. As a result of this lack of advertis- 

 ing, the harvest of fertile ash seeds is often small. Many seeds 

 are produced, but only about one-third of them have power to 

 grow. 



