THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



815 



of Augsburg planted above a million of maple-trees of one of 

 the European species, for the express purpose of manufactur- 

 ing sugar for home consumption. 



The Ash family, Fraxinus, is both useful and ornamental. 

 The common ash, F. excelsior, attains a large size in this 

 country, and has long been in demand by the coach-builder 

 and the makers of agricultural implements. Evelyn, in his 

 Sylva, states, that trees of this species, of forty years growth, 

 from seed, sold for thirty pounds each; an extraordinary 

 price for timber in those days : and that a gentleman had a 

 plantation of this tree, of his own planting, which was valued 

 at fifty thousand pounds. Of this species there are five cu- 

 rious varieties to be met with in collections. Of these, the 

 F. excelsior var,, argentia, and var. pefidula, are great or- 

 naments to the lawn or shrubbery, and the yellow-barked, or 

 golden F. aurea, is not only while in leaf, but also when 

 without leaves, an interesting tree. 



The F. ornuSy or manna ash, produces the medicinal manna, 

 and is also an ornamental tree. In the country to the east- 

 ward of the Missisipi, including Canada and the United States, 

 the younger Michaux supposes not less than thirty species of 

 this valuable tree to exist ; all of which have never been at 

 any period in this country. Since the beginning of this century, 

 no less than fourteen species have been introduced from North 

 America alone ; still it is surprising that not above four or five 

 species are in general cultivation, even when considered as 

 ornamental trees only. The F. Americana is no less interest- 

 ing from the magnificence of its growth than for the beauty of 

 its foliage : it abounds from the northward of Hudson River to 

 the southern limits of Jersey and Pennsylvania, and attains 

 the height of eighty feet. It also endui'ea the severest cold 

 of Nova-Scotia and Canada without any diminution of size ; 

 and where planted in this country bids fair to prosper to the 

 utmost of our expectations. 



The tEsculus family are exceedingly ornamental, and are 

 more generally met with in pleasure-grounds than any other fa- 

 mily of arborescent plants. The beauty of their flowers, as well 

 as the elegant palmat form of their foliage, have led to their 

 being more generally admitted into the pleasure-ground than 



