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Handbook of Nature-Sttidy 



Pistillate blossoms of white ash. 

 Photo by G. F. Morgan. 



THE WHITE ASH 



Teacher's Story 

 YTHS and legends cluster about the ash tree. 

 It was, in the Norse mythology, the tree 

 "Igdrasil," the tree of the universe, which was 

 the origin of all things. It is a pity that it 

 was not the Tree of Life in the Garden of 

 Eden, for if another myth is true, no snake will 

 go near it or cross its branches. There is a 

 widespread belief that it draws lightning, just 

 as the beech repels the thunderbolts. "As 

 straight as a white ash tree" was the highest 

 compliment that could be paid to the young 

 pioneer; so straight is its fiber and so strong 



its quality, that the American Indians made their canoe paddles from it. 

 The ashes have the most beautiful bark in the world. It is divided into 



fine, vertical ridges, giving the trunks the look of being shaded with pencil 



