170 THE ASH-TREE. 



nevertheless, by non-development of some portion, 

 unisexual very often in effect. In other words, some 

 individuals produce perfect or bisexual flowers, while 

 others are deficient in the pistilline or female por- 

 tion. Hence it is that in winter, when the "keys " 

 hang upon many individuals in those dense brown 

 clusters which are so strikingly characteristic of this 

 beautiful tree when leafless, certain other indi- 

 viduals are totally without them. They are generally 

 at a considerable height, few being procurable by 

 the hand lifted from below ; and the same of course 

 is previously the condition of the flowers, which 

 like those of poplars, often make us envy the birds, 

 to whom no blossom is inaccessible. Many marks 

 thus serve to isolate and distinguish the ash-tree, 

 and if more were needed, we have them in the 

 peculiar curving upwards of the extremities of the 

 branches, at least when the tree is adult and grow- 

 ing old; in the flattened extremities of the twigs; 

 and in the sooty-black buds, which at all seasons 

 are more or less remarkable. 



It is pleasing to observe for what very different 

 situations the various figures of trees severally 

 adapt themselves. The ash shows nowhere better 

 than at the corner of a wood, where, by bringing off 

 the heaviness of other trees, it forms, by reason of 

 its lightness, a sort of transition from foliage to airy 

 space. Hence, too, the exquisite effect of ash-trees 

 when they have shot up, from wind-conveyed seeds, 



