1. Winter buds.
2. Branch with sterile flowers.
3. Sterile flowers.
4. Branch with fertile flowers.
5. Fertile flower.
6. Fruiting branch.

=Fraxinus Pennsylvanica, Marsh.=

_Fraxinus pubescens, Lam._

RED ASH. BROWN ASH. RIVER ASH.

=Habitat and Range.=--River banks, swampy lowlands, margins of streams
and ponds.

New Brunswick to Manitoba.

Maine,--infrequent; New Hampshire,--occasional, extending as far north
as Boscawen in the Merrimac valley; Vermont,--common along Lake
Champlain and its tributaries (_Flora of Vermont_, 1900); occasional in
other sections; Massachusetts and Rhode Island,--sparingly scattered
throughout; Connecticut,--reported from East Hartford, Westville,
Canaan, and Lisbon (J. N. Bishop).

South to Florida and Alabama; west to Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and
Missouri.

=Habit.=--Medium-sized to large tree, 30-70 feet high, with trunk 1-3
feet in diameter; erect, branches spreading, broad-headed; in general
appearance resembling the white ash.

=Bark.=--Trunk dark gray or brown, smooth in young trees, furrowed in
old, furrows rather shallower than in the white ash; branches grayish;
young shoots greenish-gray with a rusty-velvety or scurfy pubescence
lasting often into the second year.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds rounded, dark reddish-brown, more or
less downy, smaller than those of the white ash, partially covered by
the swollen petiole. Leaves pinnately compound, opposite, 9-15 inches
long; petiole short, downy, enlarged at base; leaflets 7-9, opposite,
3-5 inches long, about one half as wide, light green and smooth above,
paler and more or less downy beneath; outline extremely variable, ovate,
narrow-oblong, elliptical or sometimes obovate, entire or slightly
toothed; apex acute to acuminate; base acute or rounded; leaflet stalks
short, grooved, downy; stipules and stipels none.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Similar to that of the white ash.

=Fruit.=--Ripening in early fall, and hanging in clusters into the
winter; samara or key about 1-1/2 inches long; body of the fruit
narrowly cylindrical, the edges gradually widening from about the center
into linear or spatulate wings, obtuse or rounded at the ends, sometimes
mucronate.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows readily in
any good soil, but prefers a wet or moist, rich loam; almost as rapid
growing when young as the white ash, and is not seriously affected by
insects or fu