Corolla deeply divided into four strap-shaped wavy wide-spreading petals. Stamens two, hypogynous, the filaments twice as long as the petals. Flowers apparently perfect, but functionally behaving as if distinctly staminate and pistillate. Fruit compressed, with a terminal flat obovate-linear wing, blunt or emarginate at the apex.
Identification
In summer the tree is readily distinguished by its smooth bark and stalked leaflets showing the characters just enumerated. In winter the twigs show a slight pubescence towards the apex and a ring of hairs at the base of the shoot. Leaf- scars parallel to the twig on projecting leaf-cushions, semi-orbicular to crescentic, the ends of the horns truncate, marked on the surface with a curved row of separate bundle scars. Terminal bud large, greyish to greyish brown, ovoid, four-sided, rounded (rarely acute) at the apex, the two outer scales gaping above and densely pubescent, Lateral buds smaller, densely pubescent, arising from the twigs at a wide angle.
Varieties
Fraxinus Ornus, occurring over a wide area, both as a wild tree in forests, and cultivated in sunny arid regions, as in Sicily, shows considerable variation in the size, shape, and texture of the leaflets; and several varieties have been established.! The only one of those which is truly distinct is var. argentea, Grenier et Godron,’ a remarkable form, growing wild in the forests of Corsica and Sardinia, distinguished by the leaflets being silvery white beneath, firm in texture, crenulate-serrate, usually smaller than the type, often subsessile, though stalked leaflets also occur on the same branch, ovate or oval in outline, occasionally approximating to an orbicular shape. This singular variety has been made a distinct species ;* but modern French and Italian botanists regard it as only a peculiar geographical variety, which seems to be sporadic in forests where the type is also met with.
Aiton * and Willdenow ° described, as the true manna ash, F. rotundifolia, with broad ovate or almost orbicular, deeply serrate leaflets. Willdenow’s figure of the foliage corresponds with the ash which | have described (p. 866) as F. excelsior, var. rotundifolia, and it is possible that both he and Aiton were in error in considering their plant to have flowers like those of F. Ornus.
Lamarck's® Fraxinus rotundifolia, differs, according to the description, from Aiton and Willdenow’s species of the same name, and is considered by Wenzig” and Lingelsheim® to be F. Ornus, var. rotundifolia; but is kept up by Koehne® as a distinct species. Hanbury” states that the manna ash cultivated in Sicily shows
1 Fiori et Paoletti, Flora Analitica d’Italia, ii. 341, mention, besides the typical form, var. rotundifolia with broad elliptical leaflets, and var. lanceolata with lanceolate leaflets.
2 Flore de France, ii. 473 (1850).
3 Fraxinus argentea, Loiseleur, Flora Gallica, ii, 697 (1806).
4 Hort. Kew, iii. 445 (1789).
5 Berlin. Baumzucht, 116, fig. vi. 1 (1796). The figure was copied by Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 1244 (1838), who merely repeats Willdenow’s description, and was probably unacquainted with the tree.
6 Encycl, ii. 546 (1786).
7 In Engler, Bot. Jahrb. iv. 169 (1883).
8 Ibid. xl. 212 (1907).
9 Deutsche Dendrologie, 508 (1893).
10 Science Papers, 368 (1876).
