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BLUE ASH. 
Fraxinus atiADRANGULATA. F. ramulis quadrangulatis, foliolis ad summum 
A-jugis, subsessilibus, ovali-lanceolatis , argute serratis, subtus pubescentibus, 
capsulis utrinque obtusis. 
The Blue Ash is unknown in the Atlantic parts of the United States, 
and is found only in Tennessee, Kentucky and the Southern part of Ohio. 
The climate of these countries is mild, and the soil in some places so 
fertile, that it is difficult, without haying witnessed them, to form an idea 
of the luxuriance of vegetation and the productiveness of agriculture. The 
richness of the soil proves a substitute for that degree of moisture which, 
in the Atlantic states, seems indispensable to the Ash. In Kentucky and 
West Tennessee, the forests upon dry and uneven lands, at a distance 
from the rivers, are composed of the Walnuts, the Red Maple, the Moose 
Wood, the Hackberry, the American Nettle and the Oaks, several species 
of which, east of the mountains, grow only in the most humid soils. 
The Blue Ash frequently exceeds 60 or 70 feet in height and 18 or 20 
inches in diameter. Its leaves are from 12 to 18 inches long, and are 
composed of 2, 3 or 4 pair of leaflets, with an odd one. The leaflets are 
large, smooth, oval-acuminate, distinctly toothed and supported by short 
petioles. The young shoots to which the leaves are attached are distin- 
guished by 4 opposite membranes, 3 or 4 lines broad and of a greenish 
color, extending through their whole length : this character disappears the 
third or fourth year, leaving only the the traces of its existence. The 
seeds are flat from one extremity to the other, and a little narrowed 
towards the base. 
The wood of the Blue Ash possesses the characteristic properties of the 
genus, and of all the species of the Western states, it is the most exten- 
sively employed and the most, highly esteemed. Besides the habitual use 
that is made of it for the frame of carriages and for the fellies of wheels, 
it is generally selected for the flooring of houses, frequently for the exte- 
rior coverings and sometimes for the shingles of the roof ; but for the last 
purpose the Tulip Tree is preferred. I have been told that a blue color is 
extracted from the inner bark of this tree ; but I have never seen it em- 
ployed, and do not know by what process it is obtained. Milk in which 
the leaves have been boiled is said to be an unfailing 'remedy for the bite 
