1224 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART JIl. 



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, mi.\ed with decomposed rock, at the bottom of a mountain (as at 

 Alva, in Stirlingshire, and Ochtertyre, in Perthshire), the ash arrives at a great 

 size. {Saiig's edit, of Xicors 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 nf Scotland, Sec, 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 cither along with 

 its own species, or with other trees, so as to draw it up with a straight clean 

 stem. 



Priypagation 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 sand}' earth, and laid 

 in a hca[) of a fiat form, not more than 10 in. thick, in order to prevent them 

 from heating. Here tiiey 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 qualit\ oi 

 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 ma}' 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, 4'c- When the ash stands alone, its far 

 extended branches are liuble to be broken oft" 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 liosiicex, 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 g'lifc 1047 



writer of the article i^raxinus in the Xouveau 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. {fg. 1047.), a beetle of a beautiful 

 golden green, with black antennae, which devours them 

 with avidity. The ash tree is no sooner covered with 

 leaves, than these are attacked by such a number of cantharides, or Spanish 



