302 HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



CHAPTER XLV. 



ON THE ASH, BEECH, AND OTHER WHITE-WOODED 

 TREES. 



The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), when well- grown and 

 in good foliage, is one of our most charming trees ; 

 its light, graceful, and agreeably- coloured leaves, 

 united with a graceful disposition of lithe, smoothly- 

 formed limbs, altogether fully entitle it to be con- 

 sidered as the " Venus of the Forest." 



The leaves of the common ash are pinnate, with 

 from three to four pairs of leaflets and one terminal 

 leaflet. This latter is sometimes absent when the 

 apex is bifoliate, and a form called the double-leaf is 

 produced, which even at this day is reputed by the 

 rustics to be capable of working various charms. 



It is this pinnate pendent leaf which, loosely 

 hanging on the flexile, more or less pendent branches, 

 gives so much grace to the tree. 



We have been much pleased with some groups of 

 ash trees in Earl Bathurst's park (Oakley Park) at 

 Cirencester ; but, as Strutt well observes, — 



It is in mountain scenery that the ash appears to peculiar advan- 

 tage ; waving its slender branches over some precipice which just 

 affords it soil sufficient for its footing, or springing between crevices 

 of rock, a happy emblem of the hardy spirit which will not be 

 subdued by fortune's scantiness. It is likewise a lovely object by the 

 side of some crystal stream, in which it views its elegant pendent 

 foliage, bending, Narcissus-like, over its own charms. 



