96 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



in small cottage gardens, where it occupies 

 ground that flowering shrubs should embellish 

 without having room to display its reversed 

 branches to any advantage. 



There are varieties of the common ash with 

 variegated leaves, and the fraxinus simplici- 

 folia, various leaved ash, is also an indigenous 

 species of this tree, to which we have added 

 two that are natives of Italy, one of Aleppo, 

 and four different species have been imported 

 from North America. 



The manna ash, fraxinus rotundifolia, is in- 

 digenous to Italy, and is found in great abun- 

 dance in the lower parts of Calabria, where it 

 grows spontaneously, and without culture, 

 except that the woodmen cut down all the 

 strong stems that grow above the thickness of 

 a man's leg. The Duchess of Beaufort intro- 

 duced this tree to England, where she culti- 

 vated it in 1697, but it seldom rises above 

 fifteen or sixteen feet high in this country, and 

 the shoots are shorter and closer together than 

 in the common ash. The leaflets are also 

 shorter, and have deeper serratures on their 

 edges, and are of a lighter green. The flowers 

 which are produced from the side of the 

 branches are of a purple colour, and appear 

 in April before the leaves come out. This 

 tree should be planted in an eastern exposure, 



