488 



THE NATURE BOOK 



TKUNk AND BARK OF THE ASH. 



In summer, if we would enter into the 

 serene joy of this Queen of the Summer, 

 we must get within the range of her 

 shadow. It is good, in the heat of the 

 day, to he there 

 on one's back 

 and watch, as 

 one may with- 

 out tedium, the 

 bhie of the sky 

 as it ripples and 

 drips in and 

 among the per- 

 vading green 

 translucency, 

 merging, van- 

 ishing, and re- 

 appearing, mak- 

 ing and break- 

 i n g infinite 

 patterns of 

 changing light 

 and colour, as 

 the wind sway- 

 ing the branches 

 gently tests the 

 delicate poise 

 of the leafage. 



In aiit u m n 



the lightly-coloured clusters of full-grown 

 " keys " early assert themselves, hanging, 

 pendent like ordered ornament, amidst 

 the mature green of the foliage. These 

 change to yellow and bronze, until pre- 

 sently they predominate, shining with 

 metallic lustre as of hammered copper or 

 beaten gold. But not all the trees, nor 

 always the same trees year by year, make 

 thus their final display. The Ash, slow 

 in the spring to robe herself in green, 

 is amongst the earliest to disrobe in the 

 autumn. 



The bole is firmly cyhndrical, knit to- 

 gether, hard and strong. The bark, but 

 moderately roughened with orderly 

 fissures, is light grey in colour, rendered 

 often silvery by abundance of clinging 

 lichen. The winter twigs are stout and 

 smooth, curved, compressed and flattened 

 where the buds emerge, and strengthened 

 with side-stays to support the coming 

 leafage, which will be large and weighty. 

 The resting bnds are velvety black, in 

 strong contrast with the greenish grey 

 twigs, on which they are borne in opposite 

 pairs. The leaf-scars are large and pro- 

 minent, nearly circular in outline, within 

 which, and parallel thereto, the leaf -traces, 

 merged together, form a strap-like curve. 



The leaves are compound, like those of 



COMPOUND LEAF OF THE ASH. 



