ASH (AS. erse, 1N1HG. aseh, (;cr. Esche), Fraxinus. A genus of trees belonging to the natural order Oleacem. The leaves are decidu ous, and are pinnate, with a terminal leaflet. There are about 50 species, mostly natives of Europe, eastern Asia, and of North America. The Common Ash (Praxinus excelsior) grows wild in the middle and south of Europe and in the north of Asia. It is an undoubted native of Great Britain. The flowers are naked; the leaves have five or six pair of leaflets. The flowers appear before the leaves in spring; in deed, the tree is not covered with leaves until the season is far advanced, and loses them again early in autumn. It is, however, a most beau tiful and umbrageous tree, highly ornamental in parks; but in parks or hedgerows it is injurious to the grass or crops immediately around it. It rises to the height of I00 to 150 feet, generally with a smooth stem. The wood is white, tough. and hard, much valued by wheelwrights, cart wrights, coaeh-makers, joiners, and turners. It is also excellent for fuel. Sometimes it becomes ir regular in the disposition of its fibres, and finely veined, and is then prized by cabinet-makers. The wood of the young trees is almost as valu able as that of the old. Indeed, the value of the timber is greatest in trees of which the growth has been rapid, as it exhibits the characteristic toughness in the highest degree. The ash prefers a loamy soil, but grows in almost any, and flour ishes in situations too elevated or too exposed for most other treys. It has been extensively planted in elevated situations in some parts of the north of Scotland. and there, in the more sheltered glens, it grows to a large size. Culti vation has produced and pelpetuated a number of varieties, of which the most remarkable are the weeping ash, with boughs bent almost straight down to the ground; the curl-leered ash, with dark-green wrinkled or curled leaves; and the entire-leared ash, a very curious variety, with ninny or all of the leaves simple (not pin nated), which has been erroneously regarded by some botanists as a distinct species, and named Frarinus heterophylla, etc. The small-leaved ash (Frarinus parrifolia) and the Lent isk ash (Frarinus len t isrifolia) are both natives of the shores of the Mediter ranean, and are very graceful and ornamental trees. The American Ash, or white ash (Prari MIS Americana), is readily distinguished from the common ash by its lighter bark and paler green leaves. The leaves have a calyx, and the leaflets are shortly stalked and entire (those of the common ash are sessile and serrated). It is abundant in New Brunswick and Canada, but is rare south of New Jersey and west of Minnesota and Kansas. The trunk often rises more than 40 feet undivided. The wood is used for the same purposes as that of the common ash. The red ash (Praxinns pubescens or Frari
pus Pennsylranica) is very similar, but of smaller size, and has a deep-brown bark. It is most abundant in Pennsylvania, .11aryland, and Virginia, especially in swampy ground. The black ash or water ash of the New England States, New Brunswick. etc. (Frarinus sambucifolio or Prarinus nigra), is a large tree, with buds of a deep-blue color. This tree is more com monly found in wet places than the other species. Its woo.d, is soft, tough, and easily separable into thin layers, on which account it is com monly used for barrel hoops, staves, and for splint baskets, etc. The blue ash of Ohio, Ken tucky, Tennessee, etc. (Fraxinus quadrangulater), is also a large tree. The inner bark of this spe cies gives a blue color to water, hence the name. The branches are quadrangular, the young shoots having on the angles four membranes which extend their whole length. The green ash (Prarinus riridis or Frarinus lanceoluta), read ily recognized by the brilliant green of its young shoots, is chiefly found in the Middle States; on account of its hardness, the green ash is exten sively planted for wind-breaks, and as an orna mental in Minnesota and the Dakotas. It is easily propagated from seed and is of very rapid growth. The wood is less valuable than that of the white ash and the Carolina ash (Prarinus rarolinia), remarkable for the great size of its leaflets, chiefly in the Southern States. Besides these, North America produces about a dozen other species or varieties. The wood of all of them is used for somewhat similar purposes to that of the common ash. In the south of Europe grows the manna ash or flowering ash (Frarinus ornits, called Ornus Europra by some botanists), whose flowers have a four-partite calyx, and four small yellowish-white petals. The tree has much resemblance to the common ash. From it the substance called manna (q.v.) is obtained by means of transverse incisions in the bark; but in very favorable situations it flows spon taneously during the greatest heat of summer. Nanna is chiefly collected in Calabria and Sicily. A nearly allied species, Frarinus rotundifolia, a native of Greece and the Ionian Islands, yields it also in perhaps equal quantity. The common ash is said sometimes to produce the same exu dation in the same warm climates.
The mountain ash is the Rowan Tree (q.v.), and belongs to a different natural order. Its re semblance to the ash is chiefly in its leaves. Fos sil forms of the ash (I'raxinus) are known in all the Tertiary beds above the Eocene, in Eu rope, hut have not been found in beds of equiva lent age in North America. Consult: G. Nich olson, Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening (Lon don, 18S4-S9) ; L. H. Bailey. Cyclopc•rlia of American Horticulture (New York, 1900-01).