60 
OREGON BLACK ASH. 
This is the only species of Ash we met with in the Ore- 
gon territory. It becomes a large and useful tree 70 or 80 
feet in height, and always affects wet or low alluvial lands, 
many of which are subject annually to temporary inunda- 
tions. We never saw it above the first falls of the Oregon, 
which would appear to be its limit or nearly so, in this 
direction, and we believe it is not known in Upper Cali- 
fornia. 
The leaves are 8 to 10 inches in length ; the lateral leaf- 
lets, about 3 pair, are to 3 inches long, the terminal 
leaf about 4 inches, the breadth about 1J inches, they are 
ovate-lanceolate, acute, but scarcely acuminate, sessile, 
entire, or now and then slightly serrate, on both surfaces 
pubescent, but particularly beneath as well as the midrib, 
and nearly of the same colour on both sides. 
The male flowers are thickly clustered, the flowers with 
2 or 3, oblong obtuse stamens, and a very minute calyx. 
The female panicles are smooth, trichotomous, and many 
flowered, with the rachis flat and compressed. The calyx 
small and 4 to 5 toothed ; the style rather long, with 2 
revolute stigmas ; no corolla. The germ subquadrangular, 
ancipital, 2-celled; cells each with 2 ovules. The samara 
is rather wide, cuneate-oblong, emarginate, and narrow at 
the base, subtended by a minute irregularly toothed calyx; 
it is only about an inch and a line long. In the White Ash 
it is sometimes near upon 3 inches. In our variety A the 
samara is somewhat longer, and generally acute and entire 
at the tip. 
The wood of this fine species is nearly white, and found 
no way inferior to that of the White Ash, being used for 
the same purposes at Fort Vancouver and amongst the 
settlers of the Wahlamet. It was much esteemed for oars 
as well as for the handles of all sorts of implements, and 
found tough and durable. Though allied to the Black Ash 
(F. Sambuci/olin ) by botanical affinities, it is very superior 
