282 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16-7— Oct., 1920 



The foliage keeps its smooth deep green appearance all summer. 

 The hanging bouquets of seed keys are a pale green with often a 

 faint rose tint until they mature and turn yellow in late Septem- 

 ber. The autumn tints of the ash fail to follow the prevailing 

 fashions of yellow, crimson and brown, but it assumes a hue 

 characteristically its own, a purplish robe with a lining of pale 

 gold. The upper and outer leaves of the tree show the deep pur- 

 plish and maroon tones on the upper surfaces of leaflets and petioles 

 while the undersides are pale gold as are also the leaves in the inner 

 part of the tree. This gives a peculiar lighting effect that is seen 

 in no other part of the gorgeous autumn landscape. Burroughs 

 says, "The ash has been less noted for its autumnal foliage than it 

 deserves. The richest shades of plum color, becoming by and by 

 in certain light a rich maroon — are afforded this tree. Then at a 

 distance there seems to be a sort of bloom upon it, as upon the grape 

 or plum." 



The leaves fall soon after the first hard frost leaving the clusters 

 of seeds to float down leisurely through the winter. Each fruit 

 has an oar-shaped wing with the seed in the small end. The wing 

 is evenly balanced so the ash fruit does not whirl as it courses its 

 way downward, but even on very quiet days this wing causes it 

 to alight at considerable distance to one side of the place where it 

 started. And when the wind blows, well, that depends upon the 

 blast. The thoroughness of distribution is shown by the frequent 

 occurrence of ash seedlings at considerable distance from any fruit 

 bearing tree. 



The wood of the ash is heavy, hard, strong, elastic, close-grained 

 easily worked but does not endure in contact with soil. Quality 

 not quantity is ever the watchword of the ash. Rapid growing ash 

 wood is best since the proportion of close grained summer wood to 

 the more open porous spring wood is greater than in trees of slow 

 growth. 



In earlier days, it was used for handles of tools, wagon tongues, 

 stakes, pins, ox-bows, staves, while the modern man uses it in his 

 farm machines, wagons and automobiles. An advertisement in a 

 local paper recently asking for young ash poles was signed by a 

 firm that is known to be exerting all its energies to the manufac- 

 ture of aeroplanes. Thus the ash goes into the modern American's 

 implements of warfare and transportation. The wood is known 

 as a sanitary wood, that is, it does not taint food in contact with 



