224 THAT 1 



tree. These beetles, commonly 

 called Spanish flies, are used in 

 medicine as " blistering powder," 

 on account of the peculiar pro- 

 perty they possess of irritating 

 the skin. Sometimes, when large 

 numbers of these insects have 

 died upon the trees, they have 

 become dried and turned to pow- 

 der. Particles of this powder 

 have fallen upon persons sitting 

 or resting beneath the trees, and 

 produced most disagreeable con- 

 sequences. These insects are not 

 numerous in England ; but in 

 North America they often prove 

 a scourge among the potatoe- 

 vines. 



The stems and branches of the 

 young ash will often be found to 

 be covered with a species of scale 

 insect; and the bark, 4, when in 

 a decaying state, will be fre- 

 quently found to be undermined 

 in a curious manner by the 



3 5 



605. 



larva, 3, of the beetle, 5,* which 

 is magnified — the natural size 

 being shown at 4. 



The leaf of the ash is" much tenderer than | 

 that of the oak, and sooner receives impressions j 



ft Uylcsinus fra.vini. I 



'S IT; 



Jrom the winds and frost. Instead of con- 

 tributing its tint in the wane of the year, 

 among the many-coloured otfspring of the 

 woods, it shrinks from the blast, drops its 

 leaf, and, in each scene where it predominates, 

 leaves wide blanks of desolated boughs, amidst 

 foliage yet fresh and verdant. Before its decay, 

 we sometimes see the leaf tinged with a line 

 yellow, well contrasted with the deeper and 

 neighbouring greens. 



The branches of the ash are sometimes dis- 

 torted into curiously-wreathed limbs, twisted 

 and curled in a singular manner. This has v 

 been supposed to arise in some instances from V 

 the rapid deposition of sap, and in others from 

 the punctures of insects in the tender twigs, 

 diverting the sap from its usual channel, and 

 causing a kind of vegetable tumour. 



Yews belong to the botanical 

 genu's taxus, from toxon, a bow, 

 having been formerly much used 

 in making them. 



" The very herdsmen learn to bend their bows 

 Of double-fatal yew against thy state." 



Shakspeare. 



COG. 



The English name is derived 

 from the Celtic iw, signifying 

 verdure, and pointing to^ the 

 evergreen foliage of the species. 



The berried, or common yeiv, 1, 

 is a tree indigenous to most parts 

 of Europe, flowering in March 

 and April, and ripening its fruit 

 in September. Yews generally 

 rise from the ground with a 

 short but straight trunk, which, 

 at the height of three or four 

 feet, sends out numerous spread- 



