EUROPEAN ASH-TREE. 393 
and bark of the Fraxinus e. heterophylla, in that country, distil a manna, a very 
gentle purgative, considerably used in materia medica, as well as in the veter- 
inary art. This manna, when freshly gathered, serves as a good substitute for 
sugar. From the ash, as before observed, are obtained the cantharides of the 
shops, commonly known by the name of Spanish flies. 
This tree, with reference to its picturesque beauties, is characterized by that 
beautiful writer, Bernard Gilpin, in the following manner : " The ash generally 
carries its principal stem higher than the oak, and rises in an easy, flowing line; 
but its chief beauty consists in the lightness of its whole appearance. Its branches' 
at first, keep close to the trunk, and form acute angles with it ; but as they begin 
to lengthen, they generally take an easy sweep; and the looseness of the leaves 
corresponding with the lightness of the spray, the whole forms an elegant depend- 
ing foliage. Nothing can have a better effect than an old ash hanging from the 
corner of a wood, and bringing off the heaviness of the other foliage with its loose 
pendent branches; and yet, in some soils, I have seen the ash lose much of its 
beauty in the decline of age. Its foliage becomes rare and meagre; and its 
branches, instead of hanging loosely, often start away in disagreeable forms. In 
short, the ash often loses that grandeur and beauty in old age which the general- 
ity of trees, and particularly the oak, preserve till a late period of their existence. 
The ash also, on another account, falls under the displeasure of the picturesque 
eye. Its leaf is much tenderer than that of the oak, and sooner receives impres- 
sion from the winds and frost. Instead of contributing its tint, therefore, in the 
wane of the year, among the many-coloured offspring of the woods, it shrinks 
from the blast, drops its leaf, and, in every scene where it predominates, leaves 
wide blanks of desolated boughs, amidst foliage yet fresh and verdant. Before 
its decay, we sometimes see its leaf tinged with a fine yellow, well contrasted 
with the neighbouring greens. But this is one of nature's casual beauties ; much 
oftener, its leaf decays in a dark, muddy, unpleasing tint; and yet, sometimes, 
notwithstanding this early loss of its foliage, we see the ash, in a sheltered situa- 
tion, when the rains have been abundant, and the season mild, retain its green, 
when the oak and the elm in its neighbourhood have put on their autumnal 
attire." And the ash is no less beautifully characterized by Strutt, in his " Sylva 
Britannica," " waving its slender branches over some precipice which just affords 
it soil sufficient for its footing, or springing between crevices of rock; a happy 
emblem of the hardy spirit which will not be subdued by fortune's scantiness. 
It is likewise a lovely object by the side of some crystal stream, in which it views 
its elegant pendent foliage, bending, Narcissus-like, over its own charms." 
50 
