ASH TREE. 27 



Ovid speaks of it as useful for spears : 



" Fraxinus utilis hastis." 



The Ash is poetically termed warlike, from this cir- 

 cumstance : 



" The warlike Ash, that reeks with human blood." 

 Garcilasso speaks of this tree in high terms : 



" All know that in the woods the Ash reigns queen, 

 In graceful beauty soaring to the sky." 



Spenser designates it as 



" The Asli for nothing ill." 



Sir Walter Scott, to express the great strength of 

 Bertram, says, 



" Like reeds he snapp'd the tough Ash wood." 



The American Ashes, Fraxinus Americana, and pu- 

 bescens, serve to increase the varieties in large planta- 

 tions, but they are considered as inferior in every respect 

 to the common Ash. 



There are two other species which, on botanical 

 grounds, have been made into a new genus, by the fa- 

 vourers of the natural system ; and even the later writers 

 on the Linnean artificial system have agreed in this 

 separation, although it has also obliged them to place 

 this new genus, Ormts, in the order diandria monogynia, 

 at the other extremity of their system. 



The Manna Ash, Fraxinus or Ornus rotundifolia, was 

 first cultivated in this country by the Duchess of Beau- 

 fort, in 1697. It is of humble growth, seldom exceeding 

 fifteen or sixteen feet in height : the flowers are purple, 

 and appear in the spring before the leaves. 



