Notes on the Genus Ash. 385 



The species and varieties of ash merit a much more extended adoption, in 

 planting for ornament and the interest of variety, than they seem to have 

 hitherto received. The pinnate leaves of all the kinds, except the jFYaxinus 

 heterophylla, which is interesting in its simple leaves, are very pleasing ; and 

 those of a kind which, in some nurseries, is called F. chinensis (though no 

 kind of ash has been introduced from China) are elegant : and those who love 

 to see variegated foliage must admire that of the silver-striped ash. The 

 crumpled dark green leaves of the F. atrovirens render this species striking. 

 On the charms of the foliage of the common ash, and for numerous interesting 

 considerations connected with a particular tree of this species, see Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., vi. 327. The great variety which obtains in the foliage of the various 

 kinds of ash may be perceived by observing the distinctive epithets by which 

 botanists have designated them : — heterophylla (syn. simplicifolia), joolemo- 

 niifolia, parvifolia, Tentiscifdlia, sambucifolia, longifolia, famaricifolia, ^'uglandi- 

 folia, ovata (the oval-leafleted), lancea (the lance-leafleted), pannosa (the cloth- 

 leafleted), and the (O'rnus) rotundifolia. In their bark, too, while devoid of 

 leaves in winter, some of the kinds are very interesting. The gold-barked 

 ash is well known to be strikingly so ; and there is the rough-barked ash, and 

 the streaked-barked ash (O'rnus striata) ; the coloured-branched, brown- 

 branched, black-twigged, grey-branched, and the green-branched, and others 

 besides, which are interesting in this point of view. A gold-barked variety with 

 drooping branches is now known, and is now in Jenkins's nursery, see p. 330. 

 The shoots of young plants of the common ash have, during their growth in 

 summer, if vigorous, a pleasing purple hue. Conspicuous beauty in blossoms 

 the species of JPraxinus have not ; but the species of O'rnus are not devoid of 

 beauty in their panicles of white blossoms. The flowers of O'rnus europae v a 

 are produced in the beginning of June, are odorous, and their odour is not 

 disagreeable : it seems to be produced from the pollen. 



On the Common Ash (Frdxinus excelsior) I have, I find, these notes, perhaps 

 worth expressing : — This tree prefers a tenacious loamy soil ; and some indi- 

 viduals, which I know, thrive in meadows through which watercourses pass, 

 and whose soil is, consequently, moist. The branches of old ash trees are not 

 rarely pendulous; much less so than those of the drooping ash, but yet 

 obviously so. In a row of ash trees, apparently all of the same age, and 

 nearly of" the same size, some trees, in some years, are seen to bear a pro- 

 fusion of seeds, while others, near them, have but a meagre crop. It is easier 

 to state this fact than to account for it. The common ash is liable to a dis- 

 ease in its inflorescence, either upon particular trees or in particular seasons : 

 the whole inflorescence becomes, without flowering at all, a conglomerate 

 and, in some degree, a solid mass. Many species of trees shoot twice a year : 

 in the spring and soon after midsummer. So far as I have observed, the ash 

 does not, or does but inefficiently, produce a second shoot : perhaps I am 

 wrong in this. A correspondent at Dundee, " noticed," on Nov. 11. 1833, 

 " in one of the dens at Will's Braes, an ash tree protruding fresh green foliage 

 from the new shoots of the present year." In Lejeune and Curtois's Com- 

 pendium Florce Belgicce we have read that the ash is frequently cultivated in 

 the province of Liege for the sake of its leaves (" vaccis grata "), grateful to 

 cows. Ash poles last longer, and are preferred to poles of other kinds of 

 wood, for hop-poles. The wood of the ash is, by the skill of the cooper, 

 made to conduce much to the domestic comforts of man. The Ptfnidas, a 

 family of species of minute beetles, whose larva? perforate, traverse, and con- 

 sume wood, like the wood of ash as well as, I think better than, the wood of 

 any other species of British tree. 



'The Drooping Ash Tree seems capable, by the aid of art, of almost rivalling 

 the famous Banyan tree of India (iacus indica). In the garden in front of the 

 Vernon Arms, in Pleasant Row, opposite York Place and Clarence Place, 

 New Road, London, is a tree of the drooping ash, whose branches are trained on 

 horizontal trellises, at the height of about 7 ft. from the ground, over twenty- 



