ASH MYETLE. 191 



was a principal instrument. It was generally believed that if 

 a shrew mouse touched the limbs of cattle it gave them pains 

 and lameness. The remedy for this was to split an Ash tree, 

 make a hole in the wood, put a live mouse therein, and bind 

 up the tree again. Happily the poor mouse would quickly die 

 of suffocation. Twigs from such a tree, called a Shrew Ash, 

 would cure the cattle suffering from shrew malice. It was 

 also a custom to pass diseased children through a cloven Ash. 

 The shade of the Ash is said to be detrimental both to corn 

 and grass. The Lancashire farmers sometimes give the bark 

 to their cattle. Evelyn says that the keys used to be pickled 

 for salad, and they certainly were used medicinally by old 

 herbalists. The wood is valuable for its toughness ; kitchen 

 tables made of it do not splinter. Milk-pails are formed of 

 it, by rolling the plank into a hollow cylinder, and putting in 

 a bottom. Ash timber will bear a greater weight than any 

 other* When burnt, it makes good potash, and the bark is 

 used in dyeing. Homer speaks of the heroes as armed with 

 Ashen spears. The ^Romans called it Fraxinus ; it was much 

 used by them for implements both of war and agriculture. 

 Pliny declares that serpents are terrified of it, and Dioscorides, 

 the physician, prescribes it as a cure for their bites. In the 

 west of England they burn Ash faggots at Christmas, in 

 memory of Alfred the Great's first campaign after his sojourn 

 in the peasant's cot, when he and his soldiers kept themselves 

 warm by burning the Ash trees in their vicinity. 



We must not leave the Olive tribe without noticing some of 

 its foreign members. 



The Myrtle, the cherished ornament of our greenhouses, 

 forms the common hedgerows at the Cape and in the countries 

 of the east ; it grows in great profusion in the Madeiras, and 

 attains the height of a hundred feet in Australia. As intro- 

 duced in Scripture, it becomes an emblem of repose : the 

 angel, in Zechariah, stood among the Myrtle trees as he said, 

 " We have walked to and fro in the earth, and behold all the 



