110 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



one is spoken of in the county of Galway, a district 

 not remarkable for timber, as forty-two feet in cir- 

 cumference, at four feet from the ground. In- 

 stances of so great dimensions are not numerous, 

 however; and it is not desirable that the ash should 

 be left for such a growth, as trees of fewer years, and 

 inferior scantling, are invariably better timber. 



Gilpin, in his work on Forest Scenery, calls the 

 oak the Hercules of the Forest, and the ash the 

 Venus. The chief characteristic of the one is 

 strength; of the other, elegance. The ash carries its 

 principal stem higher than the oak ; its whole appear- 

 ance is that of lightness, and the looseness of the 

 leaves corresponds with the lightness of the spray. 

 Its bloom is one of the most beautiful appearances 

 of vegetation. The ash, however, drops its leaves 

 very early; and, instead of contributing its tint to the 

 many-coloured foliage of the autumnal woods, it 

 presents wide blanks of desolated boughs. In old 

 age, too, it loses that grandeur and beauty which 

 the oak preserves. 



Though the name be in part the same, and there 

 be a little similarity in the form of the leaves, the 

 ash must not be confounded with the mountain ash 

 (Pyrus aucuparia,) which is quite a different tree 

 The two species have this in common, that the wood 

 is tough, and the suckers, which spring plentifully from 

 the roots of both, are fit for hoops and other purposes; 

 but the mountain ash is a slow growing-tree, never 

 attains any very valuable size, and the timber is soft 

 and not durable. It is a hardy tree, growing any- 

 where ; and its bright red berries, as well as its white 

 flowers, make it rather an ornamental plant in a shrub- 

 bery; but it is seldom if ever planted as a timber-tree, 

 though, in the days of superstition and folly, it was in 

 some repute as a spell against witchcraft. 



The mountain ash is a beautiful object intermingled 



