16 BULLETIN 299, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
soap berry, dogwood, with, a dense undergrowth (in wetter situa- 
tions) of elbow brush (Crataegus), poison ivy, wild grapevine, and 
wire grasses. Green, pumpkin, and water ashes are often found 
around the edges of sloughs or back swamps (upon which water 
stands for from 9 to 12 months in a year) in mixture with cypress and 
tupelo gum. Green ash is one of the most common species in the 
very sparsely forested plains and prairie country of the Middle 
West, growing almost entirely along streams in company with white 
elm, cottonwood, willow, hackberry, sycamore, black cherry, and 
bur oak. 
RED ASH. 
Red ash is a pubescent species of the green ash group occasionally 
found along streams in the New England, Middle, Lake, and Central 
States east of the Mississippi River. West of the Mississippi it> is 
often difficult to distinguish from green ash; with which it is appar- 
ently connected by intermediate forms. 
PUMPKIN ASH. 
Pumpkin ash is a much more distinct pubescent species of the 
green-ash group than is red ash, the seeds are much larger, and the 
tree is more rapid growing in youth under the same conditions. It 
has a very limited occurrence, however, and is usually found on the 
wetter parts of overflow river bottoms, unfavorable to rapid devel- 
opment, where it is associated with the same trees as is green ash. It 
has been observed in commercial quantities only in southeastern 
Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, and in the eastern half of North 
Carolina. It may be, geologically, an older species than green ash, but 
nonaggressive from a reproductive standpoint and relegated to 
undesirable sites. 
OREGON ASH. 
Oregon ash occurs along streams, in some cases reaching an eleva- 
tion of 5,000 feet, though it usually stops at 3,000. It thrives on 
gravelly flats with the water table near the surface. At lov eleva- 
tions it is associated with maple, oak, and willow. At higher eleva- 
tions in the oak-digger-pine type and in the Douglas-fir yellow-pine 
type, its associates are willow, alder, maple, cottonwood, black oak, 
yellow and digger pine, and Douglas fir. The largest trees and the 
commercially important stands are in southwestern Oregon, in asso- 
ciation with alder, broadleaf maple, and California laurel, on good 
agricultural soils which are being rapidly cleared for farm land. 
LEATHERLEAF ASH. 
F. coriacea is the species commonly named leatherleaf ash, although 
F. velutina is also sometimes so called. The F. velutina is the more 
abundant and occurs chiefly in New Mexico and A nzona, along 
