CHAP, LXXV. OLEA‘CEX. FRA’‘XINUS. 1225 
flies, that the trees, during the remainder of the summer, have a dismal appear- 
ance; and, though the insect which devours the leaves may please the eye by 
its elegant form, and its colours of green and gold, yet it spreads abroad 
a smell which is so disagreeable, that it causes the common ash to be ex- 
cluded from our forests, where the flowering ash, and some of the American 
species, are alone introduced.” (NV. Du Ham., vol. iv. p. 58.) M. Pirolle, 
in one of the early volumes of the Bon Jardinier, mentions that, even when 
the cantharides are dead on the trees, they become dried to a powder, which 
it is difficult to pass the trees without inhaling. The particles of this powder, 
being parts of those flies that cause the blistering of the skin when a 
blister plaster is applied, are, of course, dangerous to persons who inhale them ; 
and, on this account, ash trees are never planted near villages in France. Giles 
Munby, Esgq., in a paper in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. 1x. p. 119., 
states that he saw an ash tree overhanging the road near Dijon, so crowded with 
the Cantharis vesicatoria, that the excrement of the insects literally blackened 
the ground. On passing underneath the tree, he felt his face as if bitten by 
gnats, and smelt a most disagreeable sickening smell, which extends, he says, 
20 or 30 yards from the tree, according to the direction of the wind. The 
insects are collected, and sold at 6s. per pound when dried. Fortunately, 
these insects are not numerous in England. In France they appear about 
midsummer, more particularly on the ash and lilac, on the leaves of which 
they feed. In Russia, according to Pallas, the cantha- a 
rides abound on the Lonjicera tatarica, and are collected 
from that plant in great quantities for the apothecaries. 
The Dorcus parallelopipedus ( fig. 635. in p. 886.) and 
the Sinodéndron cylindricum (fig. 1048.; in which a is 
the female, and 4 the male), especially in the larva state, 
live in the decayed wood of the ash, as well as in that of 
most other trees. (See an interesting article on this sub- 
ject by the Rev. W. T. Bree, in the Magazine of Natural 
History,vol. vi. p..327.) It has been observed, that, when 
woodpeckers are seen tapping those trees, they ought é' 
to be cut down, as these birds never attempt to make holes in this tree till it 
is in a state of decay. The timber of the ash, Michaux observes, is subject to 
be worm-eaten, and for that reason it is rarely employed in building houses. 
Statistics. Recorded Ash Treesin England. Dr. Plot mentions an ash, witha trunk 8 ft. in diameter, 
which was valued at 307. Evelyn speaks of divers trees, “lately sold in Essex, in length 152 ft.”” 
Moses Cook mentions one at Cashiobury, with a clean stem 58 ft. high, and 2 ft. in diameter, half 
way from the ground. The great ash at Woburn Abbey, stands in a row of those trees, in the park, 
about a quarter of a mile from the mansion ; and, as Strutt observes, “is an extraordinary specimen 
of the size which this tree will attain in favourable situations. It is 90 ft. high from the ground to 
the top of its branches ; and the stem alone is 28 ft. It is 23 ft. 6 in. in circumference on the ground, 
20 ft. at 1ft., and 15 ft. 3in. at 3 ft. from the ground. The circumference of its branches is 113 ft. 
in diameter ; and the measurable timber in the body of the tree is 343 ft.; and in the arms and 
branches, one of which is 9 ft. in circumference, 529ft.; making altogether 872 ft. of timber.’’ 
(Struti’s Sylva, 8vo ed., p. 79.) (See Statistics of existing Trees.) Mitchel says, there are ash trees in 
Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire, and Hagley Park, Worcestershire, 100 ft. high ; at Fawsley, in North 
Hampshire, from 80 ft. to 100 ft. high, and 14 ft. incircumference. In Moor Park, Hertfordshire, 100 ft. 
high, and 12 ft. in circumference; and at Longleat, in Wiltshire, there are’ many trees with clear 
stems of 50 ft., and from 9 ft. to 12 ft..in circumference. In Whitaker’s History of Craven, published 
in 1805, an ash is mentioned as having been lately felled at the House of Broughton, in Craven, 
which contained 500 cubic ft. of timber, and sold for 45/. (Whit. Craven., p.80.) A curious ash, 
growing on the top of a wall at Saltwood Castle, near Hythe, is described in Gard. Mag., vol. xii. 
Recorded Ash Trees in Scotland. The great ash at Carnoch, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the 
largest in Scotland, which, says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, “‘ we have had an opportunity of seeing 
and admiring,’”’ measured, in 1825, according to Strutt’s Sylva (8voed., p. 150.), 90 ft. high, 31 ft. in 
girt atthe ground ; and, at the height of 10 ft., it divides into three large limbs, each of which is 10 ft. 
in circumference. The solid contents of the tree are 679 cubic feet. It was planted about the year 
1596, by Sir Thomas Nicolson, the lord advocate of James VI. There is a beautiful engraving of it 
in Strutt’s Sylva Britannica. Mr. Strutt’s drawing of this tree was made in 1825, at which time, he 
says, it was in “ full vigour and beauty, combining airy grace in the lightness of its foliage and the 
playful ramifications of its smaller branches, with solidity and strength in its silvery stem and prin- 
cipal arms.” (Sylva, p.151.) This tree, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart informs us, is now (Aug. 0. 
1836) much in the same state in which it was when the drawing was taken by Mr. Strutt. At Earls- 
mill, near Darnawa Castle, the seat of the Earl of Moray, in Morayshire, there is an ash which 
girts above 17 ft., at 3ft. from the ground. “There is a small hole at the root of it, large enough 
to admit one man at a time; and, on creeping into it, the cavity is found to beso great as to 
allow three people to stand upright in it at the same moment. The interior has been in this 
state during the memory of the oldest persons; and yet until an accident in July, 1824, nothing 
could be more grand than its head, which was formed of three enormous limbs, variously sub- 


