164 



THE ASH-TREE. 



took its rise ! Tall and illustrious as the tree is now, 

 once it was a little seedling that might be crushed 

 beneath the foot. So true is it that nature contains 

 counterparts of everything that is delightful in the 

 history of human life and the human affections one 

 form or another gives us a picture of everything 

 that goes to make up home and love ; faithfulness, 

 and reverence, and solace. 



Botanically, the ash-tree is distinguished from 

 every other arborescent plant of our country (save 

 and except the somewhat similar mountain-ash) by 

 the peculiar form of the leaves. These instead of 

 consisting of a single blade, like those of the oak, 

 the elm, or the beech, are composed of several pairs 

 of leaflets, with an odd one at the extremity. Tech- 

 nically, this form is called "pinnate," or feather-like. 

 Whether the leaflets be articulated to the main stalk 

 from the first, so as to constitute a truly compound 

 leaf is not quite clear. When they fall in autumn, 

 the pieces certainly come asunder, just like those of 

 the horse-chestnut and the Virginian-creeper; it is 

 not unusual, on the other hand, to find young leaves 

 in September, in which all the members are perfectly 

 conjoined. The analogy of the jessamine, to which 

 the ash-tree is nearly allied, would seem to indicate 

 that they are not truly compound. The foliage is 

 late in coming out, with the exception of the mul- 

 berry, perhaps there is no tree in England which is 

 habitually so much behindhand; and late as the 



