CHAP. Lxxv. OLEA^CE.t:. fua'xinus. 122,5 



flies, that the trees, during tlie 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." (N'. JDn Horn., vol. iv. p. 58.) M. PiroUe, 

 in one of the early volumes of the Bon Jnrdinier, mentions that, even when 

 the cantharidcs 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, Esq., in a paper in the Magazine of Katural Histori/, vol. ix. p. 119., 

 states that lie saw an ash tree overhanging the road near Dijon, so crowded v^ith 

 the C'antharis 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- 

 ridcs abound on the Lonlcerrt tatarica, and are collected 

 from that plant in great quantities for the apothecaries. 

 The Z)6rcus paralleloplpedus ( fig. 635. in p. 88(i.) and 

 the Sinodendron cylindricum {fg. 104-8.; in which a is ^„^g 



the female, and I) 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 Katural 

 Histori/,vo\. vi. p. 327.) It has been observed, that, when 

 woodpeckers are seen tapping those trees, they ought 



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 Trees in England. Dr. Plot mentions an ash, with a trunk S ft. in diameter, 

 which was vakied at 30/. Evelyn speaks of divers trees, "lately sold in Essex, in length 152ft." 

 Moses Cook mentions one at Cashiobury, with a clean stem 58 ft. high, and 2 it. in diameter, half 

 way from the grovind. 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 tlie ground to 

 tlie 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 1 ft., and 1.") ft. 3 in. at 3 ft. from the ground. The circumference of its branches is 113 ft. 

 in diameter ; and the measurable limber in the body of the tree is 34.3 ft. ; and in the arms and 

 branche', one of which is 9 ft. in circumference, 529ft. ; making altogether 872 ft. of timber." 

 {Struti's Si/lva, Svo ed., p. 79.) (See Statistics of existing Trees.) Mitchel says, tliere are ash trees in 

 Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire, and Hagley Park, Worcestershire, lOi' t\. hif;h ; at Fawsley, in North 

 Hampshire, from 80 ft. to 100 ft. high, and U ft. in circumference. 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 oj Craven, published 

 in ISO.), 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/. (n'/iit. 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 .4sh 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 Si/hia (8voed., p. 150.), 90 ft. high, 31 ft in 

 girt at the 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 Sulva 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. 20. 

 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 be so 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. 



