THE ASH-TREE. 169 



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 extremi- 

 ties. 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 

 of those plants which, without being structurally 

 unisexual, after the manner of the Amentiferae, are 



