g to put out at a height of 6-8 feet, lie
in almost horizontal planes, forming a roundish, open head.

=Bark.=--Trunk in old trees dark, rough, deeply furrowed, separating
into small, firm sections; large limbs dark reddish-brown; season's
shoots green, turning to brown.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds oblong, conical, short. Leaves simple,
alternate, 3-6 inches long, about half as wide, dark green and mostly
glossy above, somewhat lighter and minutely downy (at least when young)
beneath, ovate to oval, entire; apex acute to acuminate; base acute,
rounded or truncate; leafstalk short; stipules none.

=Inflorescence.=--June. Sterile and fertile flowers on separate or on
the same trees; not conspicuous, axillary; sterile often in clusters,
fertile solitary; calyx 4-6-parted; corolla 4-6-parted; about 1/2 inch
long, pale yellow, thickish, urn-shaped, constricted at the mouth and
somewhat smaller in the sterile flowers; stamens 16 in the sterile
flowers, in fertile flowers 8 or less, imperfect; styles 4, ovary
8-celled.

=Fruit.=--A berry, ripe in late fall, roundish, about an inch in
diameter, larger farther south, with thick, spreading, persistent calyx,
yellow to yellowish-brown, very astringent when immature, edible and
agreeable to the taste after exposure to the frost; several-seeded.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy along the south shore of New England;
prefers well-drained soil in open situations; free from disfiguring
enemies; occasionally cultivated in nurseries but difficult to
transplant. Propagated from seed.

[Illustration: PLATE LXXXII.--Diospyros Virginiana.]

1. Winter buds.
2. Branch with sterile flowers.
3. Vertical section of sterile flower.
4. Branch with fertile flowers.
5. Section of fertile flower.
6. Fruiting branch.

OLEACEAE. OLIVE FAMILY.

Fraxinus Americana, L.

WHITE ASH.

=Habitat and Range.=--Rich or moist woods, fields and pastures, near
streams.

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Ontario.

Maine,--very common, often forming large forest areas; in the other New
England states, widely distributed, but seldom occurring in large
masses.

South to Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A tall forest tree, 50-75 feet high, with a trunk diameter of
2-3 feet; rising in the rich bottom lands of the Ohio river 100 feet or
more, often in the forest half its height without a limb. In open
ground the trunk, separating at a he