THE ASH-TREE. 



THE fame of the Ash-tree reaches back to the re- 

 motest antiquity, the wood having been used from 

 time immemorial for spear-shafts and in the con- 

 struction of other weapons of war, whence its well- 

 known epithet the " martial." Strange that such 

 a purpose should be served by a tree, the young 

 branches of which are so brittle that they snap like 

 sealing-wax. The delicate and feminine beauty of 

 the ash has also contributed to render it an object 

 of frequent mention in literature, as when Virgil 

 commends it as the most graceful of trees, in the 

 often-quoted line 



Fraxinus in sylvis pulclierrima. 



