TREES IN NATURE 8i 



judge by appearances, and must have been 

 guided by the toughness of the wood of the 

 ash. Doubtless the fact that spear-shafts 

 were made of ash- wood determined the choice 

 of those who invented Odin and his doings. 

 Evelyn descants on the use of the ash — the 

 most universal, he says, next to that of the 

 oak — to the soldier, the carpenter, wheel- 

 wright, cartwright, cooper, turner and thatcher. 

 He is silent as to its beauty. But his Sylva 

 was written, we must remember, mainly with 

 a utilitarian purpose. 



Not even the delicate beauty of the silver 

 birch draws from him any eloquent passage. 

 He notes that ''though birch be of all other 

 the worst of timber ; yet has it its various uses, 

 as for the husbandman's ox-yokes ; also for 

 hoops, paniers, brooms, wands, bavin and 

 fuel," etc. He has much to say about the 

 virtues of the water of the tree. We must 

 not follow him along this doubtful path ; but 

 his introduction to the subject is worth quoting, 

 if only as giving his general opinion of the 

 tree. " I should here add the uses of the water 

 too," he says, '*had I not already protested 

 against tampering with the medicinal virtues of 



