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FRAXINUS excelsior.
Common Ash.
/ S '
DIANDRIA Monogynia,
G en. C har. Calyx none, or in 4 deep segments. Cor.
none, or in 4 deep segments. Capsule superior,
o f 2 cells, leaf-like and compressed at the summit.
Seeds solitary, pendulous. Some flowers only female.
Spec. Char. Leaflets serrated. Flowers without calyx
or corolla.
S yn. Fraxinus excelsior. Linn. Sp. P I. 1509. Sm.
FI. B rit. 13. Huds. 446. W ith. 57. Hull. 227.
Relh. 5 . Sibth. 18. Abbot. 220.
Fraxinus. R aii Syn. 469.
A COMMON tree, preferring a dry or limestone soil to a
boggy one, and flowering in April. The leaves” come out
after the flowers are past, and the capsules ripen towards autumn.
The stem is tall, straight and handsome, clothed with a
smooth grey bark. Branches spreading and rather drooping.
Buds singularly black and somewhat downy. Leaves opposite,
pinnate. Leaflets 5 or 6 pair, with an odd one, nearly sessile,
ovate, acute, serrated, smooth, except that the main rib is
fringed beneath. Common footstalk channelled and bordered
on the upper side. Flowers from lateral buds below the leaf-
buds, panicled, drooping, small, brown, consisting-of an
ovate germen and short style, with an obtuse stigma, with a
small stamen on each side, no calyx nor petals. Sometimes
the stamens, rarely the germen, are wanting. Capsules
strikingly characteristic of the genus, oblong, flat, leaf-like,
with 2 cells, and 1 seed in each, glittering with brown meal
like an almond, but bitter and nauseous.
The wood is tough, valuable for many purposes. There is
a variety with weeping or drooping branches, and another with
simple leaves. Both are propagated by grafting only.