The Ashes and the Fringe Tree 



me for quoting it. "Three or four leaves of the ash taken in 

 wine each morning doe make those lean that are fat." Parkinson 

 indorses this as "a singular good medicine — with fasting a small 

 quantity — for those already fat or tending thereunto, to abate 

 their greatnesse, and cause them to be lancke and gaunt." Who 

 disbelieves in this will do well to remember that Gerarde was no 

 mean authority in his day, and Parkinson — was he not the King's 

 own Apothecarye? I make no doubt, however, that the con- 

 clusion will be drawn by many that the "fasting a small quantity" 

 was the effective part of the treatment prescribed. 



"Bee-sucken ash," black at the heart, was counted tougher 

 and harder than the wood of sound trees, and especially desirable 

 for making mallets. Bees were credited (or blamed) with a 

 cankered condition produced by a tree-destroying fungus. 



Finally, ash wood makes excellent fuel, and its ashes, rich in 

 potash, make an excellent fertiliser. Certainly the genus as a 

 whole deserves the good word of the poet Spenser, who, enumerat- 

 ing trees and their special uses, closes the list with — " the ash, for 

 nothing ill." 



2. Genus CHIONANTHUS, Linn. 



Fringe Tree (Chionanthus Virginica, Linn.) — A slender, 

 narrow-headed tree, 20 to 30 feet high, or less. Bark reddish, 

 scaly; branches grey or brown. Wood light brown, close, heavy, 

 hard. Buds small, brown, ovate; inner scales becoming leaf-like. 

 Leaves opposite, simple, 4 to 8 inches long, i to 4 inches broad, 

 smooth, except on veins below, dark green, paler below, oval 

 or oblong on short petioles; yellow in early autumn. Flowers, 

 May and June, perfect, white, each with 4 slender, curving petals 

 I inch lofig, in graceful, pendulous clusters. Fruit in September, 

 clustered i -seeded drupes, i inch long, dark blue, with slight 

 bloom; flesh dry; skin thick. Preferred habitat, rich, moist soil on 

 banks of streams. Distribution, southern Pennsylvania to 

 Florida; west to Arkansas and Texas. Uses: Admirable orna- 

 mental tree, hardy to New England. Much planted in parks and 

 gardens. 



The fringe tree's beauty when its belated leaves unfold, and 

 the delicate fringe-like flowers cover it like a bridal veil, is quite 



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