1224 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART IL. 
be tolerably good, except on retentive clays or tills. In wet soils, it soon 
sits up (ceases to increase either in girt or height), languishes, and dies, 
In rich lands its wood is short and brittle; in sandy soils it is tough and 
reedy; qualities which, for several purposes, very much enhance its value. In 
loam, mixed with decomposed rock, at the bottom of a mountain (as at 
Alva, inStirlingshire, and Ochtertyre, in Perthshire), the ash arrives at a great 
size. (Sang’s edit. of Nicol’s Planter’s Calendar, p.51.) Dr. Walker, a close 
observer of nature, and an ardent lover of trees, says, “ The ash should be 
planted on dry banks, in glens and gullies, in places encumbered with large 
loose stones, and in all rocky places, wherever there is shelter; but the 
largest trees,” he says, “ will always be found where they have running water 
within reach of their roots. There is no situation,” he adds, “ too high, or 
too cold, for the ash, provided it has shelter; but without shelter it never 
makes a considerable tree at a great height, even though standing in a good 
soil.” (Highlands of Scotland, &c., vol. ii. p. 235.) Shelter, and a dry good 
soil within reach of water, are, then, essential for the prosperity of the ash. 
The most proper station for the ash, according to Nicol, is the forest or the 
grove. Marshall recommends the ash to be planted alternately with the oak ; 
because, as the ash draws its nourishment from the surface, and the oak from 
the subsoil, the ground would thus be fully and profitably occupied. As the 
value of the timber depends on the closeness and cleanness of the grain, there 
can be no doubt whatever that the ash ought to be planted either along with 
its own species, or with other trees, so as to draw it up with a straight clean 
stem. 
Propagation and Culture. The species is always propagated by seed, and 
the varieties by grafting or budding on the species. The seeds (which are 
included in what are commonly called keys, but botanically samaras,) are 
generally ripe in October; when they should be gathered, and taken to the 
rotting-ground, where they should be mixed with light sandy earth, and laid 
in a heap of a flat form, not more than 10 in, thick, in order to prevent them 
from heating. Here they should be turned over several times in the course 
of the winter ; and in February they may be removed, freed from the sand 
by sifting, and sown in beds in any middling soil. The richness or quality of 
the soil, Sang observes, is of little consequence ; but it should be well broken 
by the rake, and the situation should be open, to prevent the plants from 
being drawn up too slender. The seeds may be deposited at the distance 
of half an inch every way, and covered a quarter of an inch with soil. The 
plants may be taken up at the end of the year, and planted in nursery lines ; 
and at the end of the second year they may be removed to where they are 
finally to remain. In timber or copse-wood plantations, no management 
peculiar to this tree requires to be described. 
Accidents, Diseases, Insects, §&c. When the ash stands alone, its far 
extended branches are liable to be broken off by high winds; but, except 
on unsuitable soils, it is not subject to the canker, or other diseases. Being 
late in leafing, it is by no means so liable to the attacks of insects as the 
species of Rosacee, which come early into leaf; at least, this is the case in 
Britain: but, in France, it is objected to the ash, that 
the leaves are liable to be destroyed by the Spanish flies ; 
and also by bees, ants, and birds, in the middle of sum- 
mer. “If nature had produced the ash for no other 
purpose than for the embellishment of forests,” says the 
writer of the article Fraxinus in the Nouveau Du Hamel, 
“we might almost say that she had failed in her end, or 
had opposed herself to her own views, in destining the 
leaves of that tree to be the food of an insect, Cantharis. 
vesicatoria Auct. (fig. 1047.), a beetle of a beautiful 
golden green, with black antenne, which devours them, 
with avidity. The ash tree is no sooner covered with My 
leaves, than these are attacked by such a number of cantharides, or Spanis 

