WHITE ASH (Fraxinus Americana, Linn.). 75 to 125 feet. Large, stately tree with tall trunk and pyramidal or round head of erect, stout branches, ending with pale twigs, roughened by projecting, roundish leaf scars, and plump, leathery buds. Bark brown or gray, criss-crossed with shallow furrows to form diamond-shaped plates. Wood brown, tough, elastic, coarse-grained, heavy, hard, not durable in soil, used for agricultural implements, vehicle frames, tool-handles, oars, stairs, fuel. Leaves opposite, compound, with usually 7 pointed white-lined leaflets on slender stalk, 8 to 12 inches long, turning purple and yellow. Flowers May, before
leaves, dicecious; sterile trees bearing crowded, purplish stamen clusters; fertile trees, racemes of greenish pistils. Fruit, clustered, fiat, pointed seeds, each with lance-like, flat wing, notched at tip. Dist.: Newfoundland to Manitoba; south to Florida; west to Arkansas and Texas. Preferred habitat, deep, rich woodlands. An admirable street and shade tree.