South to Florida; west to the Rocky and Wahsatch mountains,
reaching its greatest size in the river bottoms of the Ohio and its
tributaries.

=Habit.=--A small but handsome tree, 30-40 feet high, with a diameter of
1-2 feet. Trunk separating at a small height, occasionally a foot or two
from the ground, into several wide-spreading branches, forming a broad,
roundish, open head, characterized by lively green branchlets and
foliage, delicate flowers and abundant, long, loose racemes of
yellowish-green keys hanging till late autumn, the stems clinging
throughout the winter.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk when young, smooth, yellowish-green, in old trees
becoming grayish-brown and ridgy; smaller branchlets greenish-yellow;
season's shoots pale green or sometimes reddish-purple, smooth and
shining or sometimes glaucous.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, enclosed in two dull-red,
minutely pubescent scales. Leaves pinnately compound, opposite; leaflets
usually 3, sometimes 5 or 7, 2-4 inches long, 1-1/2-2-1/2 inches broad,
light green above, paler beneath and woolly when opening, slightly
pubescent at maturity, ovate or oval, irregularly and remotely
coarse-toothed mostly above the middle, 3-lobed or nearly entire; apex
acute; base extremely variable; veins prominent; petioles 2-3 inches
long, enlarging at the base, leaving, when they fall, conspicuous
leaf-scars which unite at an angle midway between the winter buds.

=Inflorescence.=--April 1-15. Flowers appearing at the ends of the
preceding year's shoots as the leaf-buds begin to open, small,
greenish-yellow; sterile and fertile on separate trees,--the sterile in
clusters, on long, hairy, drooping, thread-like stems; the calyx hairy,
5-lobed, with about 5 hairy-stemmed, much-projecting linear anthers;
pistil none: the fertile in delicate, pendent racemes, scarcely
distinguishable at a distance from the foliage; ovary pubescent, rising
out of the calyx; styles long, divergent; stamens none.

=Fruit.=--Loose, pendent, greenish-yellow racemes, 6-8 inches long, the
slender-pediceled keys joined at a wide angle, broadest and often
somewhat wavy near the extremity, dropping in late autumn from the
reddish stems, which hang on till spring.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; flourishes best in
moist soil near running water or on rocky slopes, but accommodates
itself to almost any situation; easily transplanted. Plants of the same
ag