CHAP. LXXV. OLEA^CEA:. FUA'XINUS. 122.5 



flics, that the trees, during the remainder of the summer, have a dismal appear- 

 ance; and, though the insect which devours the leaves may please the eye by 

 its elegant form, and its colours of green and gold, yet it spreads abroad 

 a Miiell which is so disagreeable, that it causes the common ash to be ex- 

 cluded from our forests, where the flowering ash, and some of the American 

 species, are alone introduced." (A\ Du Ham., vol. iv. p. 58.) M. Pirolle, 

 in one of the early volumes of the lion Jftnfhiicr, mentions that, even when 

 the cantharidcs are dead on the trees, they become dried to a powder, which 

 it is difficult to pass the trees without inhaling. The particles of this powder, 

 being parts of those flies that cause the blistering of the skin when a 

 blister plaster is applied, are, of course, dangerous to persons who inhale them ; 

 and, on this account, ash trees are never planted near villages in France. Giles 

 Munby, Esq., in a paper in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. ix. p. 1 19., 

 states that he saw an ash tree overhanging the road near Dijon, so crowded with 

 the Cantharis vesicatoria, that the excrement of the insects literally blackened 

 the ground. On passing underneath the tree, he felt his face as if bitten by 

 gnats, and smelt a most disagreeable sickening smell, which extends, he says, 

 20 or 30 yards from the tree, according to the direction of the wind. The 

 insects are collected, and sold at 6s. per pound when dried. Fortunately, 

 these insects are not numerous in England. In France they appear about 

 midsummer, more particularly on the ash and lilac, on the leaves of which 

 they feed. In Russia, according to Pallas, the cantha- 

 rides abound on the Lonicera tatarica, and are collected 

 from that plant in great quantities for the apothecaries. 

 The Dorcus parallelopipedus (fig. 635. in p. 886.) and 

 the Sinodendron cylindricum (fg. 104-8.; in which a is 

 the female, and b the male), especially in the larva state, 

 live in the decayed wood of the ash, as well as in that of 

 most other trees. (See an interesting article on this sub- 

 ject by the Rev. W. T. Bree, in the Magazine of Natural 

 History, vol. vi. p. 327.) It has been observed, that, when 

 woodpeckers are seen tapping those trees, they ought 

 to be cut down, as these birds never attempt to make holes in this tree till it 

 is in a state of decay. The timber of the ash, Michaux observes, is subject to 

 be worm-eaten, and for that reason it is rarely employed in building houses. 



Statistics. Recorded Ash Trees in England. Dr. Plot mentions an ash, with a trunk 8 ft. in diameter, 

 which was valued at 30/. Evelyn speaks of divers trees, "lately sold in Essex, in length 152ft." 

 Moses Cook mentions one at Cashiobury, with a clean stem 58ft. high, and 2 ft. in diameter, half 

 way from the ground. The great ash at Woburn Abbey, stands in a row of those trees, in the park, 

 about a quarter of a mile from the mansion ; and, as Strutt observes, " is an extraordinary specimen 

 of the size which this tree will attain in favourable situations. It is 90ft. high from the ground to 

 the top of its branches ; and the stem alone is 28 ft. It is 23 ft 6 in. in circumference on the ground, 

 20 ft. at 1 ft., and 15 ft. 3 in. at 3 ft. from the ground. The circumference of its branches is 113 ft. 

 in diameter ; and the measurable timber in the body of the tree is 343 ft. ; and in the arms and 

 branches, one of which is 9ft in circumference, 529ft; making altogether 872ft. of timber." 

 (Strutt's Sylva, 8vo ed., p. 79.) (See Statistics of existing Trees.) Mitrlu>l says, there are ash trees in 

 Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire, and Hagley Park, Worcestershire, 100 ft. high ; at Fawsley, in North 

 Hampshire, from 80ft. to 100 ft. high, and 14 ft. in circumference. In Moor Park, Hertfordshire, 100 ft. 

 high, and 12ft. in circumference; and at Longleat, in Wiltshire, there are many trees with clear 

 stems of 50 ft, and from 9 ft. to 12 ft. in circumference. In Whitaker's History qf Craven, published 

 in 1805, an ash is mentioned as having been lately felled at the House of Broughton, in Craven, 

 which contained 500 cubic ft. of timber, and sold for 45/. (Whit. Craven., p. 80.) A curious ash, 

 growing on the top of a wall at Saltwood Castle, near Hythe, is described in Gard. Mag., vol. xii. 



Recorded Ash Trees in Scot/and. The great ash at Carnoch, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the 



planted about the year 



1596, by Sir Thomas Nicolson, the lord advocate of James VI. There is a beautiful engraving of it 

 in Strutt's Sylva Britannica. Mr. Strutt's drawing of this tree was made in 1825, at which time, he 

 says, it was in " full vigour and beauty, combining airy grace in the lightness of its foliage and the 

 playful ramifications of its smaller branches, with solidity and strength in its silvery stem and prin- 

 cipal arms." (Sylva, p. 151.) This tree, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart informs us, is now (Aug. 20. 

 1836) much in the same state in which it was when the drawing was taken by Mr. Strutt. At Earlsl 

 mill, near Darnawa Castle, the seat of the Earl of Moray, in Morayshire, there is an ash which 

 girts above 17 ft., at 3ft. from the ground. "There is a small hole at the root of it, large enough 

 to admit one man at a time ; and, on creeping into it, the cavity is found to be so great as to 

 allow three people to stand upright in it at the same moment. The interior has been in this 

 state during the memory of the oldest persons; and yet until an accident in July, 1824, nothing 

 could be more grand than its head, which was formed of three enormous limbs, variously sub. 



