obovate or oval; cuneate and unequal at the base; acute, acuminate or rounded at the apex ; remotely and irregularly serrate ; upper surface shining, smooth, glabrous ; lower surface light green, glabrous, but roughened on the midrib and nerves by minute, curved, stiff bristles, which are also present on the petiolules and on the margin of the blade. Rachis of the leaf, grooved throughout, pubescent on the upper side of the nodes, and armed near the nodes and at the base with minute curved bristles, which are also occasionally present towards the apex of the branchlet. Flowers (section Ovnus), in terminal glabrous panicles, on filiform pedicels; calyx with five long acuminate teeth. Fruit linear, 14 inch long, 4 inch wide.
This species, of which we have seen the type specimen, preserved at Leyden, and a specimen at Kew, lately received from Tokyo, differs from all the ashes known to me, in the occurrence of characteristic minute curved prickles on the under surface, margin, and petiolules of the leaflets and on the rachis of the leaf. Blume considered it to be only cultivated in Japan, and possibly an introduction from China. It appears to be unknown to Japanese botanists. However the only living specimen which we have seen is a small plant at Aldenham, which was raised from seed obtained from the Imperial Garden at Tokyo. (A.H.)
FRAXINUS PUBINERVIS
- Fraxinus pubinervis, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 311 (1850); Franchet et Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 311 (1875), and ii. 435 (1879) ; Lingelsheim, in Engler, Bot. Jahrd. xl. 214 (1907).
- Fraxinus Bungeana, De Candolle, var. pubinervis, Wenzig, in Engler, Bot. Jahrb. iv. 170 (1883).
A small tree, with smooth bark. Young branchlets densely covered with greyish pubescence, disappearing in the second year. Buds conical, densely covered with a brownish-grey pubescence. Leaflets, five or seven, coriaceous, 3 to 4 inches long, 1 to 14 inch wide; terminal largest, long-stalked and often broadest in its upper half; lateral, upper pair subsessile, lower pairs shortly stalked ; lanceolate, cuneate at the base, acuminate at the apex, crenately serrate ; upper surface glabrous ; lower surface pale green, with dense whitish pubescence on the side of the midrib, spreading to the lateral nerves, and continued on the petiolules. Rachis of the leaf, with a continuous open groove, pubescent throughout, the pubescence densest at the nodes. Flowers (section Ornus), in large, terminal glabrous panicles, with early deciduous petals and long pedicels ; calyx with long acuminate teeth. Fruit linear- spatulate, acute, 11⁄2 inch long, 1⁄6 inch wide.
This species is known to the Japanese as toneriko; and in a native book on forest trees, is said to attain 30 feet in height and 3 feet in girth, but no accurate account of its distribution or habitat is given. There is a dried specimen at Kew, lately received from Tokyo. The only tree in cultivation known to me, is one at Aldenham, about 15 feet high, which was received six years ago from the Yokohama Nursery Company, and is growing vigorously.
