CHAP. Lxxv. olea'ce.^. fra'xinus. 1221 



the oak, and sooner receives impression from the winds and frost. Instead 

 of contributing its tint, therefore, in the wane of the year, among the many- 

 coloured offspring of the woods, it shrinks from the blast, drops its leaf, and, 

 in every scene where it predominates, leaves wide blanks of desolated boughs, 

 amidst foliage yet fresh and verdant. Before its decay, we sometimes see its 

 leaf tinged with a fine yellow, well contrasted with the neighbouring greens. But 

 this is one of nature's casual beauties : much oftener, its leaf decays in a dark, 

 muddy, unpleasing tint; and yet, sometimes, notwithstanding this early loss 

 of its foliage, we see the ash, in a sheltered situation, when the rains have 

 been abundant, and the season mild, retain its green (a light jileasant green) 

 when the oak and the elm in its neighbourhood have put on their autumnal 

 attire." {For. Seen., p. 37.) 



" It is in moimtain scenery that the ash appears to peculiar advantage ; 

 waving its slender branches over some precipice which just affords it soil 

 sufficient for its footing, or springing between crevices of rock ; a happy 

 emblem of the hardy spirit which will not be subdued by fortune's scantiness. 

 It is likewise a lovely object by the side of some crystal stream, in which it 

 views its elegant pendent foliage, bending, Narcissus-like, over its own charms." 

 (^StrutCs Sylvn, 8vo edit., p. 79.) 



" The beauty of the roots of the ash," Gilpin observes, " is of a pictu- 

 resque nature. They are often finely veined, and will take a good polish. 

 Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire (chap. vi. § 80.), speaks of 

 certain knotty excrescences in the ash, called the brusca and mollusca, which, 

 when cut and polished, are very beautiful. He particularly mentions a dining- 

 table made of the latter, which represents the exact figure of a fish. With 

 regard to the exact figure of animals and other objects, which we meet with 

 both in stone and wood, I cannot say I should value them much as objects of 

 beauty. They may be whimsical and curious ; but, in my opinion, the roots 

 and veins of wood and stone are much more beautiful when they are 

 wreathed in different fantastic forms, than when they seem to aim at any 

 exact figures. In the former case, they leave the imagination at liberty to 

 play among them, which is always a pleasing exercise to it ; in the latter, they 

 are, at best, awkward and unnatural likenesses, which often disgust the pic- 

 turesque eye, and always please it less than following its own fancy, and 

 picking out resemblances of its own." {^For. Seen., p. 38.) 



The wreathed Fascia in the Ash Tree is likewise of the picturesque kind, and 

 consists of a sort of excrescence, which is sometimes found on a leading branch, 

 and is called bv this name. " The fasciated branch is twisted and curled into a 

 very beautifurform ; which form it probably takes, as Dr. Plot supposes, from 

 too quick an ascent of the sap (see Nat. Hkt. of Oxf,, ch. vi. § 82.) ; or,asother 

 naturalists imagine, from the puncture of some insect in the tender twig, 

 which diverts the sap from its usual channel, and makes the branch monstrous. 

 The wreathed fascia is sometimes found in other vvood, in the willow particu- 

 larly, and in the holly ; but most commonly it is an excrescence of the ash. 

 I have a fasciated branch of ash, found in the woods of Be:iulieu, in the New 

 Forest, which is most elesantly twisted in the form of a crosier ; and I have 

 seen a holly, also, twisted'^like a ram's horn. We have this appearance some- 

 times in asparagus." {Id., p. 39.) 



The Spraj/ of the Ash (fg. 1046.) " is very different from that of the oak, the 

 elm, or the beech. As the boughs of the ash are less complex than those 

 of the oak, so is its spray. Instead of the thick intermingled bushmess 

 which the spray of the oak exhibits, that of the ash is much more simple, 

 running in a kind of irregular parallels. The main stem holds its course, 

 forming at the same time a beautiful sweep; but the spray does not 

 divide, like that of the oak, from the extremity of the last year's shoot, 

 but springs from the sides of it. Two shoots spring out, opposite each other ; 

 and each pair in a contrary direction. Rarely, however, do both the shoots 

 of either side come to maturity : one of them is commonly lost as the 

 tree increases, or, at least, makes no appearance in comparison with the 



4 L 4 



