128 THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



on Shakspeare to substitute, for the puzzling expression in 

 "Macbeth," "Aroint thee, witch!" the words "A Eoan- 

 tree, witch ! " The passage being thus uttered, the men- 

 tion of a tree so fatal to the power of the witch might 

 naturally excite her acrimony against the person who ap- 

 plied the test. The authoress of "Sylvan Sketches" quotes 

 a stanza from a very ancient song, which runs as follows : — 



"Their spells were vain : the boys return'd 

 To the queen in sorrowful mood, 

 ('rying, that ' witches have no power 

 Where there is Roan-tree wood.' " 



In remote districts of England the superstition has not 

 even yet died away. Waterton, in his "Essays on Natural 

 History," relates an anecdote which fell under his personal 

 observation, of a countryman in Yorkshire, who " cut a 

 bundle of Wiggin, and nailed the branches all up and 

 down the cow-house," in order to counteract the effect 

 produced on his cow by the "overlooking" of a supposed 

 witch. 



The Mountain i^sh is found in a native state through- 

 out the whole of Europe, and in several of the northern 

 countries of Asia and North America. The parts of Great 

 Britain where it attains its largest size are the western 

 highlands and the western coast of Scotland. On the 

 hills of Cheshire and Derbyshire it does not often attain a 

 great size ; in such situations an entire tree, with roots, 

 leaves, and flowers, is sometimes found not more than 

 nine inches high. Ordinarily it grows very rapidly during 

 the first five years of its existence, and at the age of 

 twenty years forms a tree of the same number of feet with 

 a single erect stem and a bushy head. The branches are 

 smooth, and vary in colour from grey to purplish brown. 

 The huds, before their expansion in the beginning of 

 April, are large and downy. The leaves consist of from 

 seven to nine pairs of narrow, acute, notched leaflets, 

 terminated by an odd one. These are somewhat downy 

 underneath in their young state, but soon become quite 



