[63] 



FLOWERS: in May and June. 

 RANGE: France and Italy. 



NOMENCLATURE. This tree is definitely not the ornus of the ancients as Linnaeus 

 believed. That one was the Fraxinus excelsior that was called ornus by the Romans and 

 boumelia by the Greeks. German, die bluhende esche. English, the flowering ash. 



USES. The common ash is a valuable tree because of the suppleness and elasticity 

 of its wood. Wheelwrights, lathe workers, armorers, etc.. use it a great deal. Among all of 

 our native types of wood it's the one that supports the most weight without breaking. A 

 dry cubic foot weighs about fifty pounds. It's no good for heating. The bark is antipyretic; 

 before the discovery of cinchona it frequently was used in medicine. A decoction of the 

 bark while it's still green yields a lovely green apple color. The leaves are a very good 

 purgative and appear to possess the same attributes as manna. 



The flowering ash is an elegant tree that deserves a place in groves and parks. 

 Manna apparently is produced by th is species of ash tree as well as by one or two others, 

 but only in Sicily. In our climate it yields none at all, or only extremely little. 

 Nevertheless M. Desfontaines has collected some particles of this material on flowering 

 ash trees and on leaves of the mastic tree [Translator's note: also known as the lentisc 

 tree, Pistacia lentiscus] grown in the King's Garden. 



CULTIVATION. Ash trees are propagated via their seeds, which are planted 

 immediately after they mature. At the end of the autumn of their second year, the saplings 

 are lifted and placed in a nursery. They can be transplanted permanently when their 

 trunks are two or three centimeters thick. Beautiful avenues are formed with the common 

 ash, but the trees must be kept away from dwellings because they attract cantharides. The 

 tree prefers good quality and rather cool natural soil. 



KEY TO PLATES. 



Common ash. 1. Intact fruit. Same, transverse section. 

 Flowering ash. 1. Flower panicle. 2. Detached flower, enlarged. 



