140 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



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 depending foliage. Nothing can 

 have a better effect than an old ash hanging from the cornel 

 of a wood, and bringing off the heaviness of the othei 

 foliage with its loose pendent branches." (Forest Scenery, 

 p. 82.) 



The highest and most characteristic beauty of the Ame 

 rican White ash (and we consider it the finest of all the 

 species) is the coloring which its leaves put on in autumn. 

 Gilpin complains that the leaf of the European ash " decays 

 in a dark, muddy, unpleasing tint." Not so the White ash. 

 In an American wood, such as often lines and overhangs 

 the banks of the Hudson, the Connecticut, and many of 

 our noble northern streams, the ash assumes peculiar beauty 

 in autumn, when it can often be distinguished from the 

 surrounding trees for four or five miles, by the peculiar and 

 beautiful deep brownish purple of its fine mass of foliage. 

 This color, though not lively, is so full and rich as to pro- 

 duce the most pleasing harmony with the bright yellows 

 and reds of the other deciduous trees, and the deep green 

 of the pines and cedars. 



The ash, unlike the elm, starts into vegetation late in the 

 spring, which is an objection to planting it in the immediate 

 vicinity of the house. In winter the long greyish white or 

 ash-colored branches are pleasing in tint, compared witn 

 those of other deciduous trees. 



