CHAP. LXXV. OLEA CEA. FRA‘XINUS. 1215 
gular and beautiful variety was dis- 
covered, about the middle of the last 
century, in a field belonging to the 
vicar of Gamlingay, near Wimpole, 
in Cambridgeshire. Professor Mar- 
tyn, in his edition of Miller’s Dic- 
tionary, published in 1807, says that 
he recollects it for nearly forty years 
as a very fine pendulous-branched 
tree. In June, 1835, the tree was \\ 
visited, at our request, by Mr. James 
Dall, late gardener to the Earl of 
Hardwicke, at Wimpole, who sent us 
the following account of it :—“ The 
tree is now comparatively in ruins. 
The trunk girts 6 ft. at 1 ft. from 
the ground. The trunk is 12 ft. 
high; at which height it branches out 
into two arms, each about 15 ft. in 
length. Three years ago, ten de- 
caying branches were lopped off, and 
four have been since blown off by 

the wind. The tree formerly stood 
in the open field ; but it is now in- \ | 1044 
cluded in the garden occupied by ZA 
the Rev. Mr. Hepworth, the present 
vicar of the parish. Mr. Hepworth enquired of the late clerk of the 
parish, who has been dead more than 20 years, and who, at the time 
of his death, was 90 years old, how long he recollected the tree. His 
answer was, ever since he was a boy, and that it was the same size 
then that it is now.” When grafts first began to be taken from this 
tree by the nurserymen, we have not been able to ascertain; but 
there are weeping ashes in the county estimated at 50 years’ growth. 
Many have been planted in England; some in Scotland and 
Ireland ; some, also, in France and Germany ; and the name of the 
variety is in the American catalogues. In the list of ash trees 
planted in the government gardens at Odessa, by M. Descemet, 
is one with pendent branches, found in a bed of seedlings, which 
may possibly be somewhat different from the English variety. The 
weeping ash is commonly grafted standard high; and, as it is very 
hardy, and grows with very great rapidity, it is a valuable tree for 
forming arbours, or for covering seats, more especially in public 
gardens. An ash tree, 100 ft. high, such as are sometimes to be met 
with in woods, might be changed into a singular object by grafting 
it at the summit with a weeping ash. If in the midst of a wood, a 
number of trees might be cut down round it so as to form an open 
area of 100ft. or 200 ft. in diameter, which would give an oppor- 
tunity of seeing the tree advantageously on every side. The weep- 
‘ing ash ripens seeds in abundance. We have not heard whether 
these seeds produce upright-growing trees generally, or whether 
they do not occasionally send up pendulous-branched ones ; but, 
judging from analogy, we think it extremely probable that the latter 
may be the case. 
¥ F. e. péndula var. The Cowpen Ash. (fig.1045.)—As we are uncertain 
whether this is a variety, or a mere variation, and strongly suspect 
it to be only the latter, we have not put a number before the name. 
Drawings of two of these trees (of one of which, 60 ft: high, 
Jig. 1045. is an engraving) were sent us, in February, 1836, by M. 
J. F. Sydney, Esq., of Cowpen, near Morpeth, who gives the fol- 
4. 
