52 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



The Flowering or Manna-bearing Ash may per- 

 haps have been known to the ancients under the 

 same name, as Virgil distinguishes between the 

 Fraxinus and the Ornus in his Georgics j . 



Could the notion put forth by this Poet, of the 

 possibility of grafting the Pear upon the Ash, have 

 arisen from the profusion of white blossoms by 

 which the Ornus is distinguished ? 



" Ornusque incanuit albo 

 Flore pyi'i." 



The two kinds of flowers are indeed different enough, 

 but the beautiful bloom of white which covers the 

 whole tree when in flower, might be confounded at 

 a distance with that of the Pear. 



The property of exuding manna, however, which 

 belongs to the Ornus so common at present in 

 Campania, does not appear to have been observed 

 by the ancients. 



The common Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, was known 

 to the Greeks under the name of /xeA/a, and to the 

 Latins by that of Fraxinus. 



Pliny k describes two varieties of Fraxinus, the 

 one long and without knots, the other short, with 

 a harder wood, a darker colour, and a leaf like 

 a laurel. Some authors suppose these differences 

 connected with their situation, stating that the Ash 

 of the plains has a spotted wood, whilst that of the 

 mountains is more compact. 



' Lib. ii. c. 66, et seq. k Lib. xvi. c. 24. 



