90 THE ASH-TREE. 



Of course they will vary with the season, a late spring driving all a 

 little forwards, a forward one giving each a little earlier place, but the 

 relative periods will probably be found to vary but slightly. It is with 

 the leafing of trees as with the rise and sweet sheen of the constella- 

 tions. Their places vary with the hour of the night, but they never 

 alter their positions with regard to one another and to the pole-star. 

 Omitting some of the less important trees and shrubs, the following 

 is the list referred to : 



Honeysuckle January 15 Wych-elm April 12 



Elder March 11 Mountain-ash and Horn- 

 Birch April 1 beam " 13 



Bramhle " 3 Apple " 14 



Plum, Apricot, and Peach, White-poplar and Chesnut. " 16 



about " 6 Oak " 18 



Filbert, Sallow, and Alder, Lime " 19 



about " 7 Maple, Black- poplar, and 



Sycamore " 9 Beech " 21 



Small-leaved Elm " 10 Ash " 22 



Individual trees, of course, may be found anticipating the generality, 

 just as in late autumn we may often observe individuals still green long 

 after the great mass of their kind has become denuded. The principle, 

 nevertheless, remains true, and all that is needed is for various observers 

 in different places to note down the particulars for a few consecutive 

 years, and then compare them. The least variation in the periods of 

 events in nature available for the purpose of a calendar appears to be in 

 the arrival of the migratory birds, and in the hatching of young rooks ; 

 the greatest, on the other hand, is in the blossoming of the turnip, 

 the appearance of the yellow butterfly, and the singing of the loved and 

 always welcome thrush. 



The flowers of the ash-tree are the simplest known to Botany, at 

 least as regards trees. They make their appearance long before the 

 leaf-buds open, at first resembling clusters of ripe blackberries, and 

 closely seated upon the twigs, towards the extremities. This rich and 

 vinous colour is wholly given by the anthers, which while young are 

 large and oval, and very densely packed. By degrees the mass 

 becomes disintegrated, and the innumerable little blossoms compose a 

 loose and branching panicle, not unlike that of the lilac-tree flowers. 

 Between every couple of anthers lies, usually, a thin flat ovary, and 

 this in due course, ripens into the well-known winglike body called 

 the "ash-key." Some trees never produce fruit; the ash being one 



