THE PRUDENT ASH 121 



of May. The birch, indeed, is as early as these, 

 and escapes damage in virtue of wiry sprays and 

 small leaves; but woe to the broad-leafed exotic 

 that puts faith in the tricksome north-country 

 spring ! Herein is shown the wise constancy of the 

 ash and oak, which, with the wych-elm, the aspen, 

 and the Scots fir, made up the staple of the primi- 

 tive British forest. 



It is the ash which, more than any other tree, 

 distinguishes the landscape of the northern half of 

 this island from that of the southern. Somewhere 

 within the confines of Staffordshire, one travelling 

 on the London and North- Western line passes out 

 of the zone of oak and elm into that of ash and 

 sycamore. In place of the heavy-headed elms (like 

 the sycamore, an importation in Eoman times) that 

 cluster round homesteads of the Midlands, the 

 northern garths are circled round by ash-trees, 

 melancholy enough at this present time of writing ; 

 but so soon as the gates of the east wind shall be 

 shut till another spring, to be clothed upon with 

 such gracious foliage as to justify the meed given 

 by Virgil to this above other trees. 1 



Never in the history of Scottish seasons was there 

 1 Fraxinus in sylvis pulch&rrima. 



