474 



ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK t. 



SECT. II. SOME TREES AND SHRUBS HAVING PROPERTIES 

 DESERVING THE MORE PARTICULAR ATTENTION OP 

 PLANTERS OP THE PRESENT DAY. 



The general history and culture of the following trees and 

 shrubs being well known, I shall only add some facts which 

 have lately come under my own observation or experience*. 



1. The ash.— The timber of this tree is chiefly used for the 

 implements of husbandry, and in most places is next in value 

 to the oak. It is, however, at present too much neglected 

 everywhere. Those who now make plantations of this tree may 

 reasonably calculate upon great profits at a future period, as 

 no other species of timber can fully supply its place. As an 

 ornamental tree, its nakedness in autumn and spring are against 

 it; otherwise, in the summer months it is the most elegant and 

 beautiful that adorns the verdant landscape. 



* For an elegant and accurate description of the characters and uses of the 

 various trees commonly cultivated in Britain, see " The Forest Walk, a Poem." 

 This little work is excellently calculated for informing young people at a period of 

 life in which attention and observation are most natural, and which thence indicates 

 the proper mode of education. One acknowledged defect of modern tuition is, 

 that at this period the mind is either stored with matter uninteresting to it, or 

 directed to studies which require abstraction and reflection ; while the open volume 

 of nature is entirely neglected. 



