MAY. 169 



The ashes are among the last trees that leaf, and the first 

 that shed their leaves. 



C. The ash, when it grows in a clearing, has great 

 grace and elegance, but it wants the massy character of 

 foliage that distinguishes some trees. 



F. Its leaves being pinnate, give it a feathery kind of 

 lightness, and its outline is graceful. The two species, White 

 Ash (Fraxinus Acuminata) and Brown Ash (Fra. Sambu- 

 cifolia) are much alike, but are distinguished by the buds, 

 the bark, and the wood. The buds of the former are pale 

 brown : of the latter nearly or quite black. In both, they 

 are large and broad, and intensely bitter. The bark of white 

 ash is deeply furrowed, and the ridges cross each other so 

 as to give the spaces between a lozenge shape, or what is 

 usually called diamond form : that of brown ash is much 

 smoother, (though furrowed in old age,) the furrows are 

 parallel and perpendicular ; it is more inclined to a yellow 

 cast, is more subject to be infested with bunches of moss, 

 and may in some degree be peeled off in small thin plates, or 

 laminae. I have read in books much doubt respecting the 

 cause of the distinction, white and brown, and the conclusion 

 that it is from the superior lightness of colour in the bark of 

 the former species. But not to mention that this is not so 

 in fact, every Canadian farmer knows that it is in the wood 

 of these two trees that this distinction is found ; the whole 

 heart of the brown ash is of a deep bistre brown, while that 

 of the white ash is white from the bark to the centre. The 

 wood of the latter is exceedingly tough and elastic, and is in 

 much demand for hoops, chair-backs and bottoms, and any 

 farming implements in which toughness is the chief requi- 

 site ; the grain is large and coarse ; it is capable of being 

 torn into long strips, almost as thin as a wafer, which are 

 interlaced for bottoms of chairs, and are very durable. The 

 sapwood of the brown ash is tough, but not in the same 



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