232 OLEACE^ 



Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, where the shrub is very plentiful. The 

 young twigs of this plant are used in Belgium and Silesia by tanners. 



The L. lucidum of China yields a vegetable wax, used in that country for 

 many purposes. The wood of our wild plant is fitted for the turner. The 

 caterpillars of several moths feed on its foliage. One of these is so frequent 

 that it has received the name of Privet hawk-moth. It is a large and hand- 

 some insect, of a bright colour, striped with purple and white. 



2. Ash {Frdxmus). 



Common Ash (/*''. exdlsior). — Leaves large, pinnated; leaflets egg- 

 shaped and lanceolate, pointed and serrated ; flowers M^ithout calyx or 

 corolla. A form of the tree occurs in Devonshire with simple leaves, which 

 is the F. heterophylla of some botanists. Long after many of the trees of 

 our woodlands are in the full leaf of advanced spring, this noble tree with 

 its ash-coloured bark is still without a spray of green, and its twin black 

 buds stand in conspicuous array on the flattened twigs. Bishop Mant well 

 describes them : 



" Its biids, on either side opposed 



In couples, each to each, enclosed 



In caskets black and hard as jet. 



The Ash-tree's graceful branch beset ; 



The branch, which, clothed in modest grey 



Sweeps gracefully with easy sway, 



And still in after life preserves 



The bending of its infant curves." 



When May comes round with its verdure and bloom, the Ash is well clothed 

 with its masses of light sprays ; and scarcely a forest tree is more beautiful, 

 and few, save the poplar, send out their branches higher towards the sky. 

 Virgil termed the Ash pulcherrima sijlvis ; and well did Gilpin name it the 

 Venus of the Forest, while he called the oak its Hercules, for the light and 

 graceful form of the Ash stands in strong contrast to the sturdy gnarled oak. 

 This writer, in his work on "Forest Scenery," thus graphically describes the 

 former tree : " Its branches at first keep close to the trunk, and form acute 

 angles with it ; but as these begin to lengthen they generally take an easy 

 sweep, and the looseness of the leaves corresponding with the lightness of 

 the spray, the whole forms an elegant depending foliage. Nothing can have 

 a better eff"ect than an old ash hanging from a corner of a wood, and bringing 

 off" the heaviness of the other foliage with its loose pendent branches." 



The Ash rises freely from seed ; and very pretty, in the months of May 

 and June, is a plantation of Ash saplings, especially when varied with wood- 

 land flowers growing around their roots. The stems and branches of the 

 young trees, about four or five feet high, have not yet wholly assumed that 

 pale ash colour which gave the tree its familiar name ; but the upper portions 

 are of a most beautiful purplish-brown hue, and are as smooth and glossy as 

 silk. If the soil is good, the young saplings soon rise to a goodly size, and 

 put forth their flowers, destitute of corolla and calyx. The Ash grows 

 rapidly, and is well worthy of its old name, " the Husbandman's Tree," and 

 is fitted to turn to good account for ladders, hop-poles, hurdles, and all sorts 

 of agricultural implements. If some stream winds its way by an ash planta- 



