Chap. 24.] FOUR VARIETIES OF THE ASH. 36*5 



CHAP. 24. (13.) TREES TT1E "WOOD OF WHICH IS HIGHLY VALUED. 



FOUR VARIETIES OF THE ASH. 



It is for the sake of their timber that Nature has created the 

 other trees, and more particularly the ash, 68 whieh yields it in 

 greater abundance. This is a tall, tapering tree, with a 

 feather-like leaf: it has been greatly ennobled by the enco- 

 miums of Homer, and the fact that it formed the spear of 

 Achilles : 69 the wood of it is employed for numerous purposes. 

 The ash which grows upon Mount Ida, in Troas, is so ex- 

 tremely like the cedar, 70 that, when the bark is removed, it 

 will deceive a purchaser. 



The Greeks have distinguished two varieties of this tree, 



the one long and without knots, the other short, with a harder 



wood, of a darker colour, and a leaf like that of the laurel. 



In Macedonia they give the name of "bumelia" 71 to an ash 



>f remarkably large size, with a wood of extreme flexibility. 



iome authors have divided this tree into several varieties, ac- 



ording to the localities which it inhabits, and say that the 



sh of the plains has a spotted wood, while that of the moun- 



ain ash is more compact. Some Greek writers have stated 



hat the leaf of the ash is poisonous 72 to beasts of burden, but 



harmless to all the animals that ruminate. 73 The leaves of 



his tree in Italy, however, are not injurious to beasts of bur- 



len even ; so far from it, in fact, that nothing has been found 



o act as so good a specific for the bites of serpents 74 as to drink 



he juice extracted from the leaves, and to apply them to the 



wounds. So great, too, are the virtues of this tree, that no 



serpent will ever lie in the shadow thrown by it, either in the 



68 He does not speak in this place of the " ornus " or " mountain ash ;" 

 nor, as Fee observes, does he mention the use of the bark of the ash as a 

 ebrifuge, or of its leaves as a purgative. This ash is the Fraxinus ex- 

 . elsior of Decandolles. 69 II. xxlv. 277. 



70 Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus, who says 

 that it is the yew that bears so strong a resemblance to the cedar. 



71 Or "bull's-ash." This variety does not seem to have been identified. 



72 This statement results from his misinterpretation of the language of 

 Theophrastus, who is really speaking of the yew, which Pliny mistakes 



>r the ash. 



73 Miller asserts that, if given to cows, this leaf will impart a bad flavour 

 to the milk ; a statement which; Fee says, is quite incorrect. 



74 A merely fanciful notion, without apparently the slightest foundation : 

 the same, too, may be said of the alleged antipathy of the serpent to the 

 beech-tree, which is neither venomous nor odoriferous. 



