42 
BLAQK ASII. 
PLATE CXXI. 
A leaf of half the natural size. Fig. 1 , Seeds of the natural size. 
BLACK ASH. 
Fkaxinus sambucifolia. F. foliolis sessilibus, acuminatis , serratis ; ramis 
punctatis. 
In the extensive country comprising the Northern Section of the United 
States, and the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the White 
Ash and the Black Ash, sometimes called Water Ash, are the most' 
abundant in the forests and the most accurately known by the inhabi- 
tants. 
The Black Ash is GO or 70 feet in height and about 2 feet in diameter. 
It requires a moister soil exposed to longer inundations than the White 
Ash, and is usually accompanied by the Red-flowering Maple, the Yellow 
Birch, the Black Spruce and the Arbor Yitæ ; in the middle States it 
prefers the company of the Red-flowering Maple and Red Ash. 
The buds of the Black Ash are of a deep blue, and the young shoots of 
a bright green sprinkled with dots of the same color, which disappear as 
the season advances. The leaves at their unfolding are accompanied by 
stipulæ which fall after two or three weeks : they are 12 or 15 inches long 
when fully developed, and composed of 3 or 4 pair of leaflets with an odd 
one. The leaflets are sessile, oval-acuminate, denticulated, of a deep green 
color, smooth on the upper surface, and coated with red down upon the 
main ribs beneath : when bruised they emit an odor like that of Elder 
leaves. The seeds, which are disposed in bunches 4 or 5 inches long, are 
flat, and like those of the Blue Ash, are nearly as broad at the base as at 
the summit. 
The Black Ash is easily distinguished from the White Ash by its bark, 
which is of a duller hue, less deeply furrowed, and has the layers of the 
epidermis applied in broad sheets. The perfect wood is of a brown com- 
