510 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



and in the quality of its timber, and surpasses it in its autum- 

 nal tints. The latter, however, retains its leaves and verdure 

 a week or ten days longer in the autumn, and by this cir- 

 cumstance the two species may be distinguished. According 

 to Gilpin, the European ash, like our own, is comparatively 

 early in shedding its leaves. " Its leaf," remarks this author, 

 " is much tenderer than that of the oak, and sooner receives 

 impression from the winds and frost. Instead of contributing 

 its tint, therefore, in the wane of the year, among the many- 

 colored offspring of the woods, it shrinks from the blast, drops 

 its leaf, and, in each scene where it predominates, leaves wide 

 blanks of desolated boughs, amidst foliage yet fresh and ver- 

 dant. Before its decay, we sometimes see its leaf tinged 

 with a fine yellow, well contrasted with the neighboring 

 greens. But this is one of nature's casual beauties. Much 

 oftener its leaf decays, in a dark, muddy, unpleasing tint." 



The American white ash, on the contrary, as I have already 

 remarked, is conspicuous for the beauty of its autumnal tints, 

 which are very peculiar — not brilliant, like those of the ma- 

 ple and the tupelo, but equalling the former in variety, and 

 assuming shades which are very infrequent in the other trees 

 of the forest. The tints of the ash vary from a dark green- 

 ish purple, through several shades of olive and brown, to a 

 sort of mixed lilac and yellow. It would be difficult pre- 

 cisely to describe all these shades. They are compound 

 tints, and seldom will two persons agree in calling them by 

 the same name. They differ so entirely from those of other 

 trees, that, by those who are accustomed to observe them, 

 the ash trees, during the first part of October, may be distin- 

 guished for miles, all round the country, with more certainty 

 than the maples, which at a distance might be confounded 

 with the tupelo. Among the tints of the ash we never see 

 the scarlet and crimson, or any of the reds, as in the maple 

 we never see the olive-brown. 



The ash is supposed to possess certain properties which are 

 injurious to serpents, and it is a general belief that all this 

 tribe of reptiles may, by a plantation of ash trees, be driven 

 out of any locality. This belief is so general, that it is prob- 



