The New Student's Reference Work/Ash

Ash, a tree common to Europe and on the North American continent, of the genus Fracinus and family Oleacea. According to its variety it is valuable economically as timber used by carpenters, coachmakers and wheelwrights, as well as picturesquely for its ornamental and shade purposes. The varieties of the ash are many, including the common ash, native to the British Isles; the white or American ash, with a light bark and pale green leaves, abundant in Canada and in the United States west to Minnesota and Texas; the red ash, met with in swampy ground in the middle states of the union: the black ash, native to New England and west to Missouri, and with its soft though tough wood, useful for barrel hoops and staves; besides the green ash, prized for its ornamental beauty in the middle states and the west; and the mountain ash or rowan tree (a species of Pyrus), allied to the ash tree proper only in its leaves. The two varieties familiar in the middle and northern states are the white and the black ash, and these are the most useful for their tough, yet easily worked wood, as well as for their ornamental purposes as a shade tree.