GREGG ASH (_Fraxinus greggii_) has some peculiarities which make it worthy of mention as one of the minor species. Its range is in the dry mountains of western Texas where a number of ashes seem to have put in an appearance as members of the thinly-peopled vegetable kingdom of that region. The compound leaves of Gregg ash are seldom three inches long, and the leaflets are often half an inch long and less than a quarter of an inch wide. The petioles are winged like the twigs of wing elm. The undersides of the leaves have small black dots. The winged seeds are as proportionately small as the leaves. The flowers have not been described by botanists, for the species is not well known. The largest trees are scarcely twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter. More frequently they are shrubs from four to twelve feet tall. The wood is heavy, hard, brown in color and of slow growth. DWARF ASH (_Fraxinus anomala_) might be mistaken for some other species were its telltale winged seeds missing. It has lost the leaflets from its compound leaf, and a single one remains. Occasionally, however, a stem bearing three leaflets is found. The seeds are equipped with wide, oblong wings. It is a desert species, and the desolate surroundings of its habitat explain why nature has dispensed with as much foliage as possible. It is found in southwestern Colorado, in southern Utah, and on the western slopes of the Charleston mountains in southern Nevada. Trees are small and the wood is not of much use for other than fuel, but a few small ranch timbers are made of it where other kinds are scarce. Trunks are usually not more than six or seven inches in diameter. The wood is heavy, hard, and light brown in color. FRINGE ASH (_Fraxinus cuspidata_) has some difficulty in proving that it is entitled to be called a tree in the United States, though southward in Mexico its right to that title is unquestioned. It is very small where its range extends over the dry ridges and rocky slopes of southwestern Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona. Its compound leaves are five or seven inches long, and the leaflets which number from three to seven have long, slender tips. The trowel-shaped fruit is about one inch long. The wood resembles white ash, but trunks of considerable size are not found. The name refers to the flowers, and they give this small tree its value for ornamental purposes. The flowers appear in April and are extremely fragrant. [Illustration] BLACK ASH [Illustration: BLACK ASH] BLACK ASH (_Fraxinus Nigra_)