CHAP. LXXV. 



OLEA CEJK. i'^HAXINUS. 



1215 



1044 



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, 1833, 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- 

 cluded in the garden occupied by 

 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 100 ft. 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. 

 t F. e. pendula var. The Cowpen Ash. (/g. 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, 

 fig. 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 L 



