508 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



THE ASH AND THE TUPELO. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 



It is pleasing to note the changes that take place, from one 

 season to another, in the relative beauty of different trees. 

 The ash, for example, which is the subject of my present 

 remarks, is, during the early part of October, one of the most 

 beautiful trees of the forest, exceeded only by the maple in 

 the beauty and variety of its tints. In summer, likewise, 

 but few species surpass it in the character of its foliage, which 

 is light and graceful, of a fine verdure, and of a medium 

 density. It has a finely rounded head, neither so pyramidal 

 as to give it a formal look, nor so broad as to take from that 

 grace which is one of its characteristics when in leaf. But 

 no sooner has the ash shed its leaves, than it takes a rank 

 below many other trees, as it then exhibits a stiff, blunt, and 

 ungraceful spray, and seems wanting in much of that ele- 

 gance for which it is remarkable in summer and autumn. 



The very opposite remarks are true of the elm, which has 

 but little beauty in the latter part of summer and early au- 

 tumn, on account of the early fading of its foliage, and its 

 want of any remarkable beauty or variety of tints. Yet in 

 winter, when all the deciduous trees are stripped of their 

 leaves, no other tree will bear any comparison with the elm. 

 Our attention is then particularly attracted to the remarkable 

 fineness and elegance of its spray, its beautiful ramification, 

 and the superb arches made by its curved and drooping 

 branches. It is no less attractive in early summer, when it 

 has just fully put forth its leaves : it then as greatly surpasses 

 the ash in beauty as it is surpassed by the ash in early au- 

 tumn. 



The ash is remarkable for the trimness and regularity of its 

 growth, and it is seldom seen with any of those breaks in its 

 foliage which are so conspicuous in the oak and the hickory. 

 Its trunk rises to a more than average height before it is sub- 

 divided, but its subdivisions are always complete. Lateral 

 branches seldom proceed from the shaft, save, perhaps, as I 



