THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 395 
aucuparia, and in the smaller size of the leaves. 
Their colour, too, is a deeper green, and the leaflets 
are not so pointed at their apices as is the case 
in those of Frawinus excelsior, though there is a 
very similar arrangement of veins. 
The Mountain Ash is not a large Tree, rarely 
attaining a height of more than thirty feet, whilst 
oftentimes it is much smaller. It is a rapid 
grower, and will often reach a height of twenty 
feet in ten years. It will live to the age of a 
century, but it seldom will make any very 
appreciable increase in height after the first 
twenty-five years of its existence, so that in 
the race for life amongst the vegetable inhabi- 
tants of the forest the Mountain Ash often suc- 
cumbs to the influence of more vigorous species; 
for it suffers from the shade and drip of taller 
Trees, which, perhaps, it may have sheltered in 
their younger days. When, however, it is not 
thus overcrowded and stifled it is a singu- 
larly hardy Tree, for it can withstand any 
amount of exposure, will grow at elevations of 
more than two thousand feet above the sea 
level, and will thrive in almost any soil. Indeed, 
Aa 
