ASH. 



[62] 



Family: JASMINE family [Translator's note: now OLEACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: POLYGAMY. DIOECY. 



The common ash. Fraxinus excelsior. Linn., is one of the largest trees in our 

 forests. Its trunk is grayish and smooth; it grows up to thirty or forty meters high. The 

 branches are opposite and have pinnate leaves that are somewhat dark green on top. 

 They're composed of nine to thirteen finely dentate oblong-oval leaflets and terminate in 

 an unpaired one that's larger than the others. The flowers are greenish, unisexual, and 

 lack petals. There are two stamens. The ovary turns into a compressed capsule or oblong 

 samara terminating in a small tongue strip with a slightly oblique point. It contains a 

 single seed, since one compartment fails to develop. 



Several varieties of the tree are cultivated, namely: the ash with marbled wood, 

 one with gravelly wood, the golden ash, the ash with torn leaves, and especially the 

 parasol ash, which is remarkable for the disposition of its branches that hang down 

 toward the ground. Likewise the horizontal ash, whose branches extend horizontally 

 instead of bending. The ash with simple leaves is thought to be a separate species by 

 some growers. 



FLOWERS: in April and May. 



RANGE: the forests of France and Europe. 



NOMENCLATURE. German, gemeine esche, aschbaum. English, ash, ash-tres 

 [Translator's note: i.e. ash-tree]. Italian, frassino. Spanish, fresno. Russian,yas, jasen. 

 Polish, jesion. Hungarian, koros-fa. 



The flowering ash, Fraxinus ornus, Linn., is a tree with a trunk fifteen or twenty 

 feet high. Its leaves are pinnate and are composed of finely toothed pointed oval- 

 lanceolate leaflets. The flowers form white panicles. They have a small calyx, a corolla of 

 four petals, and two stamens. The fruit is a capsule or samara somewhat blunter than that 

 of the common ash. 



