DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 139 



second to no tree in the forest, the hickory alone excepted. 

 The ash is a large and lofty tree, growing, when surrounded 

 by other trees, sixty or seventy feet high, and three or more 

 in diameter. When exposed on all sides it forms a beau- 

 tiful, round, compact head of loose, pinnated, light green 

 foliage, and is one of the most vigorous growers among the 

 hard-wooded trees. The American species of ash are 

 found in the greatest luxuriance and beauty on the banks 

 and margins of rivers where the soil is partially dry, yet 

 where the roots can easily penetrate down to the moisture. 

 The European ash is remarkable for its hardy nature, being 

 often found in great vigor on steep rocky hills, and amid 

 crevices where most other trees flourish badly. Southey 

 alludes to this in the following lines : — 



" Grey as the stone to which it clung, half root, 

 Half trunk, the young ash rises from the rock." 



As the ash grows strongly, and the roots, which extend 

 to a great distance, ramify near the surface, it exhausts the 

 soil underneath and around it to an astonishing degree. 

 For this reason the grass is generally seen in a very meagre 

 and starved condition in a lawn where the ash tree abounds. 

 Here and there a single tree of the ash will have an excel- 

 lent efiect, seen from the windows of the house ; but we 

 would chiefly employ it for the grand masses, and to inter- 

 mingle with other large groups of trees in an extensive 

 plantation. When the ash is young it forms a well rounded 

 head ; but when older the lower branches bend towards 

 the ground, and then slightly turn up in a very graceful 

 manner. We take pleasure in quoting what that great 

 lover and accurate delineator of forest beauties, Mr. Gilpin, 

 says of the ash. " The ash generally carries its principal 



