Fraxinvs.] jasminace^. 303 



two usually abortive, smooth, convex at the back, the two inner faces plane. 

 Embryo very large, its broad flat cotyledons lying a little obliquely in the axis of 

 the acrid fleshy albumen. 



The wood of the Privet is very hard, compact and heavy; and the berries, like 

 those of the Olive, yield an oil by expression; their juice is also employed for 

 staining playing cards of a violet colour. The flowers are perfectly honey-scented, 

 and very attractive to bees. 



This plant appears to prefer the neighbourhood of the sea to more inland situ- 

 ations, as I remark it to abound far more in this island than in the mainland of 

 Hants at a distance from the coast. It occurs plentifully near Petersfield, which 

 is quite in the interior of the county. 



The Privet is much in use for garden-hedges, as it grows thick, bears clipping 

 remarkably well, and flourishes even in the smoky atmosphere of London. From 

 its abundance in the wild state with us, it is sometimes used in field-fencing, for 

 which purpose it is however greatly inferior to the Whitethorn, and is now, I 

 believe, but little employed. The long straight shoots are used in this island, 

 from their toughness and pliability, in tying small bundles or faggots for firing by 

 the country people. 



A variety with entirely persistent leaves is commonly known as the Italian Pri- 

 vet, but is assuredly nothing but L. vulgare rendered evergreen by cultivation in 

 a good soil, a state to which the wild plant ofteu approaches with us very closely. 



II. Feaxinus, Linn. Ash. 



" Calyx 0, or 4-cleft. Corolla 0, or of 4 petals. Fruit dry, 

 indehiscent, 2-celled, 2-seeded, compressed and foliaceous at the 

 extremity (a samara). Seeds solitary. {Flowers sometimes with- 

 out stamens)." — Br. Fl. 



1. F. excelsior, Li. Common Ash. * Leaves pinnated, leaflets 

 ovato-lanceolate acuminate serrated, flowers without either calyx 

 or corolla. E. Fl. i. p. 14. E. B. i. 1692. Br. Fl. p. 264. 

 Guimp. und Hayne, Abbild. der Deutsch. Holtzart, ii. 285, t. 214. 



In woods, copses, hedgerows and hilly pastures ; very common. Fl. April, 

 May. Fr. October. Ij . 



Betvveeu Shanklin and Luccombe are many fine trees. A very fine but much 

 decayed and injured tree by Apse farm strikingly picturesque in its outline. 



A tree, of from 40 or 50 to 80 or 100 feet in height, with spreading branches, 

 the smaller mostly opposite, very brittle, and usually uneven with knobby protu- 

 berances (scars of the old buds) at their extremities, the lower boughs more or less 

 pendulous with incurved or ascending somewhat compressed extremities, and 

 covered with a greenish gray very smooth bark, which on the trunk is in young 

 trees cinereous and even, on old ones chapped and rugged. Leaves imparipin- 

 nate, from large blackish buds like the flowers, crowded on the young wood of the 

 current year, on semiterete pale green petioles, tumid at their base and carrying 

 a greenish black flower-bud in the axil of each. Leaflets mostly 6 or 7 pairs with 

 an odd one, often 4 or 5 pairs, opposite, sessile or very slightly stalked, light yel- 

 lowish or sometimes dark green above, glabrous and usually somewhat shining, 

 paler beneath, and more or less woolly along the very prominent midrib, variable 

 in shape, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate to oblong or elongate-lanceolate or oblong- 

 elliptical, acute or mostly acuminate, more or less attenuated at base, especially 



* The leaves of the Ash nourish that valuable as well as brilliant beetle, the 

 blistering or Spanish fly, which made its appearance in countless multitudes near 

 Colchester in 1837: during that and the following season many were captured at 

 Southampton and elsewhere, besides numerous specimens taken by myself at 

 Ryde, and by others at Yarmouth, in this island. 



