338 FRAXINUS EXCELSIOR. 
At Cobham Hall, in Kent, there is a tree of this species, one hundred and 
twenty feet in height, with a trunk six feet and eight inches in diameter, straight, 
and without a branch, for a great height. 
In Ayrshire, at Kilkerran, there is an ash, which, at thirty years after plant- 
ing, had attained the height of sixty feet, with a trunk nine feet in diameter, and 
an ambitus or spread of branches of seventy-five feet. 
In Fermanagh, at Enniskillen, Ireland, there is an old tree, with a trunk 
twelve feet in diameter, three feet from the ground. And, in Limerick, at Adare, 
there is an ash of unknown age, under which the family treasure of the ances- 
tors of the Earl of Dunraven lay concealed during the troubles of 1688. 
In France, at the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, there is a Fraxinus excelsior, 
which in sixty years after planting, had attained the height of fifty-six feet. 
At Monza, in Italy, there is a tree, which, at the age of forty years, was sixty 
feet high. 
At Sans Souci, near Berlin, in Prussia, there is an ash, which, in forty years 
after planting, had attained the height of fifty feet. 
In Russia, in the government garden at Odessa, there is a tree of this species, 
which acquired the height of twenty-three feet, in eleven years after planting. 
The Fraxinus excelsior was introduced into the North American colonies in 
about the year 1740, and the original tree, which has attained the height of fifty 
feet, with a trunk four feet in girth, is yet standing in the Bartram botanic gar- 
den, at Kingsessing. There are also specimens of the Fraxinus e. aurea and 
pendula, in the nursery of Mr. D. Landreth, in Philadelphia, fifteen years planted, 
and twenty-five feet in height. 
Poetical, Mythological and Legendary Allusions. The ash is mentioned both 
by Hesiod and Homer ; the latter of whom not only speaks of the ashen spear of 
Achilles, but informs us that it was by a spear of this wood that he was slain. 
"The noble ash rewards the planter's toil; 
Noble, since great Achilles from her side 
Took the dire spear by which brave Hector died." 
In heathen mythology, Cupid is said to have made his arrows first of ash, though 
they were afterwards made of cypress. According to Virgil, the disciples of Mars 
used ashen poles for lances. 
" A lance of tough ground Ash the Trojan threw, 
Rough in the rind and knotted as it grew." 
The Scandinavians also introduce this tree into their mythology. It is stated in 
the " Edda," or sacred book of the Northmen, that the court of the gods is held 
under a mighty ash, the summit of which reaches to the heavens, the branches 
overshadow the whole surface of the earth, and the roots penetrate to the infer- 
nal regions. An eagle rests on its summit to observe everything that passes ; to 
which a squirrel constantly ascends and descends, to report those things that the 
exalted bird may have neglected to notice. Serpents are twined round the trunk ; 
and from the roots there spring two limpid fountains, in one of which lies concealed 
wisdom, and in the other a knowledge of the things to come. Three virgins con- 
stantly attend on this tree, to sprinkle its leaves with water from the magic foun- 
tains; and this water, falling on the earth in the form of dew, produces honey. 
Man, according to the "Edda," was formed from the wood of this tree; and 
Hesiod, in like manner, deduces his brazen race from 
"The warlike Ash, that reeks with human blood." 
Ancient writers of all nations state that the serpent entertains an extraordinary 
respect for the ash. Pliny says that, if a serpent be placed near a fire, and both 
surrounded by ashen twigs, the serpent will sooner run into the fire than pass over 
