THE ASH. 63 



beauty, for sometimes the whole branch is lost as far as one 

 of the lateral shoots, and this occasions a kind of rectangular 

 junction, which forms a beautiful contrast with the other 

 spray, and gives an elegant mode of hanging to the tree. 



" This points out another difference between the spray 

 of the Oak and that of the Ash. The spray of the Oak 

 seldom shoots out from the under sides of the larger 

 branches; and it is this, together with the strength and 

 firmness of the branches, which keeps them in a horizontal 

 form. But the spray of the Ash as often breaks out on the 

 under side as in the upper ; and being of a texture weaker 

 than that of the Oak, it generally, as the bough increases, 

 depends upon the larger branch, and rising again forms, in 

 full-grown trees especially, very elegant, pendent boughs." 



This description is so very accurate and truthful, that the 

 reader, if he is at all conversant with woodland scenery, can 

 scarcely fail to recognise the portrait. . 



When the Ash has attained a considerable size, the spray 

 assumes, in early spring, an appearance very different from 

 that which characterised the younger tree. This is occa- 

 sioned by the numerous clusters of flowers which appear 

 at the extremities of the branches at least a month be- 

 fore the leaves. These flowers are minute and remarkably 

 simple in their structure, being destitute both of calyx and 

 corolla : but being exceedingly numerous, and of a dark 

 purple colour, they are very conspicuous, and add materially 

 to the ordinary graceful character of the tree. They grow 

 in dense clusters on the extremities of those branches which 

 were produced in the former year : and, buried among them, 

 lie the rudiments of the future leading shoot. They are 

 difficult to describe except in the technical language of the 

 botanist, but will amply reward any one who will take the 

 pains to examine them closely; for, minute as they are, 

 they are very elegant, and the rich purple contrasts beauti- 

 fully with the delicate greenish-yellow tint of the flower 

 stalks, though when the tree is observed from a distance, 

 the latter are so closely concealed by the flowers as to be 



