314 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
conspicuous vantage-ground of some crumbling 
ruin, it is enabled by its preference for a shallow 
soil, to display the lightness and grace of its 
foliage to perfection. It can bear no rivalry, and 
hence it speedily overtops the other growths of 
the woodland, rising oftentimes to a considerable 
height. Not only does it grow readily from seed, 
but it also developes very rapidly, especially if it 
should be in good, rich and somewhat chalky soil, 
in which it delights, and by the margin of some 
lake or river. Its roots have a peculiarly horizon- 
tal method of growth, creeping to a considerable 
distance outwards from the Tree trunk; and as 
they are thick and fibrous and come very near to 
the surface of the ground, there is little chance 
of any other vegetation growing under the shelter 
of its branches. On this account it has been sup- 
posed, but erroneously, that the ‘drip’ of its 
leaves is detrimental to vegetation. 
Some time before the leaves of the Ash appear 
in spring—and it is the latest of our woodland 
Trees in leafing, seldom unfolding its foliage until 
the end of April or the beginning of May—there 
is produced from the sides of the branches of 
