FRAXINUS OXYCARPA
- Fraxinus oxycarpa, Willdenow, Sp. Pl. iv. 2, 1100 (1805); Loudon, Ard. e¢ Frut. Brit. ii. 1230
- Fraxinus oxyphylla, M. Bieberstein, 72. Taur. Cauc, ii. 450 (1808); Boissier, Hora Orientalis, iv. 40 (1879).
- Fraxinus rostrata, Gussone, Pl. Rar. 374, t. 63 (1826).
A tree of moderate size. Shoots green, glabrous; lenticels pink. Leaflets (Plate 263, Fig. 11), nine to thirteen, usually small, 1½ to 3 inches long, sessile or subsessile ; lanceolate, oval or ovate; base tapering, apex acuminate ; serrations few, sharp, spreading and often ending in incurved points; lower surface pubescent on the midrib and veins towards the base. Rachis of the leaf glabrous, winged, the wings meeting above and only forming an open channel opposite the nodes. Flowers (section Fraxinaster) without calyx or corolla, in short racemes in the axils of the leaf-scars of the previous year’s shoot. Fruit broad, oblanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex.
This species closely resembles F. angustifolia, differing in the leaflets being always pubescent beneath. The terminal buds are conical, quadrate, long and slender, with four outer narrow scales of equal length, dark brown and pubescent.
It is doubtful if the differences in the samaræ relied upon for the separation of this species from F. angustifolia are really constant. The fruits in this group of Fraxinus are extremely variable, and do not appear to give specific characters.
While F. angustifolia seems to be confined to the western part of the Mediterranean region, Fraxinus oxycarpa is widely distributed in Italy, Asia Minor, Persia, and the Caucasus,
Var. parvifolia, Wenzig.’ Leaflets small, oval-oblong. Boissier considers this to be rather a bushy or sterile juvenile form of the species than a distinct variety, and records it from various localities in Asia Minor. An ash identified by Mathieu,’ with F. parvifolia, Lamarck, grows in the neighbourhood of Montpellier in France, as a shrub about 5 to 10 feet high, and belongs to this variety.
At Kew, the ash, cultivated as F. parvifolia, Lamarck, is a variety of F. oxycarpa, distinguished by having leaflets (Plate 263, Fig. 9) shorter than in the type, broader in proportion to their length, and more closely set upon the rachis.
Fraxinus oxycarpa is much rarer in cultivation in England than F. angustifolia ; but small trees are growing at Kew, Woburn, Eastnor Castle, Oxford Botanic Garden, and at Grayswood, Haslemere, where it has produced seed, from which plants have been raised by Elwes, and are growing at Colesborne. It does not seem in this country to be so vigorous a tree as F. angustifolia. (A.H.)
1 In Engler, Bot. Jahrb. iv. 175 (1883).
2 Flore Forestière, 245 (1897).
