CHAP. LXXV. OLEA v CE^. FRA'xINUS. 1223 



observe every thing that passes ; to whom a squirrel constantly ascends and 

 descends, to report those things that the exalted bird may have neglected to 

 notice. Serpents are twined round the trunk ; and from the roots there 

 spring two limpid fountains, in one of which wisdom lies concealed, and in 

 the other a knowledge of the things to come. Three virgins constantly attend 

 on this tree, to sprinkle its leaves with water from the magic fountains ; and 

 this water, falling on the earth in the shape of dew, produces honey. Man, 

 according to the Edda, was formed from the wood of this tree. Ancient 

 writers of all nations state that the serpent entertains an extraordinary 

 respect for the ash. Pliny says that, if a serpent be placed near a fire, and 

 both surrounded by ashen twigs, the serpent will sooner run into the fire than 

 pass over the pieces of ash ; and Dioscorides asserts that the juice of ash 

 leaves, mixed with wine, is a cure for the bite of serpents. Evelyn mentions 

 that, in some parts of England, the country people believe that, if they split 

 young ash trees, and make ruptured children pass through the chasm, it will 

 cure them; and the Rev. W. T. Bree relates an instance, within his personal 

 knowledge, of this extraordinary superstition having been lately practised in 

 Warwickshire. (See Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vii. p. 557.) Another superstition is 

 that of boring a hole in an ash tree, and imprisoning a shrew mouse in it : a few 

 strokes with a branch of a tree thus prepared is supposed to cure lameness and 

 cramps in cattle, all of which the poor mouse is accused of having occasioned. 

 (Ibid., p. 564.) There is also a proverb in the midland counties, that, if there 

 are no keys on the ash trees, there will be no king within the twelvemonth, 

 in allusion to the ash tree being never totally destitute of keys. Lightfoot 

 says that, in many parts of the Highlands of Scotland, at the birth of a child, 

 the nurse or midwife puts one end of a green stick of this tree into the fire, 

 and, while it is burning, gathering in a spoon the sap, or juice, which oozes out 

 at the other end, administers this as the first spoonful of food to the newly 

 born baby. Many poets have mentioned the ash, and the following passages 

 allude to the situations in which it is said most to thrive: — 



" The ash asks not a depth of fruitful mould, 

 But, like frugality, on little means 

 It thrives ; and high o'er creviced ruins spreads 

 Its ample shade, or on the naked rock, 

 That nods in air, with graceful limbs depends.' 



-" Here amid the brook, 



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

 Half trunk, the young ash rises from the rock ; 

 And there the parent lifts its lofty head, 

 And spreads its graceful boughs." 



" Nature seems t'ordain 



The rocky cliff for the wild ash's reign. 



Bidlakk's "Year, 



Soutiiey's RodcricK- 



Dryden's Virgil. 



Soil and Situation. The ash, it is said by Boucher, will grow in very 

 barren soil, and in the bleakest and most exposed situations ; but, though it 

 will grcv under such circumstances, it is certain that it will not attain a 

 timber-like size there. According to Lightfoot, it will stand the sea breeze ; 

 and, according to Woodward, in Withering' s Botany, if planted by ditch 

 sides, or in low boggy situations, the roots act as under-drains, and render 

 the ground about them firm and hard. Mr. Ley, in his Land Steivard, says 

 that no land is more proper for ash than swampy boggy soils, that cannot 

 be drained so as to grow grass or corn. On this remark, Mr. Mitchell 

 (Dendrologia, p. 41.) observes, that such places are good for growing ash 

 poles, to cut down at from 12 to 20 years old; but that timber grown in such 

 situations soon gets knotty and diseased. The preceding opinions we regard 

 as in a great measure erroneous. Sang, whom we consider as the very first 

 modern authority in all matters respecting the hardier forest trees, observes, 

 of the ash, that " it is found in the highest perfection on dry loamy soils. 

 On such it spontaneously grows. In moist, but not wet soils, it grows fast, 

 but soon sickens. It will grow freely on most kinds of soils, if the situation 



