Ornus 

 Ornus. 



'nascuntur steriles saxosis montibus orni' (fie. ii. iii). 



Columella says that this tree is a wild ash with 

 broader leaves. It is the manna ash (Fraxinus ornus), 

 which is with some reason regarded by the Latin 

 poets as the typical hillside tree of central and 

 southern Italy. Handsome and free flowering, it is 

 of much less stature than its cousin tr^e. Virgil 

 makes Linus say that Hesiod's pipe would draw the 

 manna ashes down from the mountains {Ec. vi. 71). 



The wood is said to be pliant, and Theophrastus 

 says it was employed for elastic bedsteads, for 

 some carpenter's tools, and, it would seem, for the 

 curved parts of merchant ships. Virgil happens to 

 mention it several times together with other timbers 

 in connection with funeral pyres, but it may be sup- 

 posed that for this purpose men took what they 

 could get. 



The tree is not much planted in England, but 

 grafted on the common ash it will flourish even in 

 large towns. 



The supposition that Ornus was the rowan is 

 quite groundless. 



Flower, May. 



Italian name, Orniello. 



Paliurus. 



' spinis surgit paliurus acutis ' {Ec. v. 39). 



The death of Daphnis, which apart from allegory 

 is the murder of Caesar, is supposed by Virgil to 



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