THE ASH. 



109 



Fraxima excelsior. 



Hesiod derives his brazen men from it ; and the 

 Edda, or sacred book of the Northmen, gives the 

 same origin to all the human race. 



From one species of the ash, which grows wild 

 in the mountains of Calabria, and does not attain 

 to a great size, manna is gathered. It is procured 

 by cutting the trunk toward the end of July, and 

 collecting the juice which exudes. 



The ash does not grow to such thickness as some 

 of the other forest-trees. Dr. Plot mentions one 

 eight feet in diameter ; Mr. Marsham another, at 

 Dumbarton, nearly seventeen feet in girth; Arthur 

 Young mentions one in Ireland that had reached the 

 height of nearly eighty feet in thirty-five years; and 



TOL. II. 10 



