The Ash. 



regards the Ash. It will not, tberefore^be necessary to repeat 

 what I have to say on these matters ; but to say the whole of 

 it, once for all, under the head of our own native Ash, with 

 which, therefore, I begin my account of this family of trees. 



104. COMMON ENGLISH ASH: FraxinusExclesior. 

 It is well known that the Ash grows to a very great height, 

 and that it will, if left to grow, become a very large tree. It 

 is also well known, that it is a beautiful tree. Gilpin cajls it 

 the Venus of the woods. It has, however, one great dis- 

 advantage ; that is, that it puts on its leaves later in the 

 spring, and loses them earlier in the fall, than any other 

 English tree. But perhaps Gilpin was thinking of a naked 

 Venus, and then, indeed, the Ash claims the pre-eminence 

 in our woods. Laying aside this nonsense, however, of 

 poets and painters, we have no tree of such various and 

 extensive use as the Ash. It gives us boards; materials for 

 making implements of husbandry; and contributes towards 

 the making of tools of almost all sorts. We could not well 

 have a waggon, a cart, a coach or a wheelbarrow, a plough, 

 a harrow, a spade, an axe or a hammer, if we had no Ash. 

 It gives us poles for our hops ; hurdle gates, wherewith to 

 pen in our sheep ; and hoops for our washing-tubs ; and 

 assists to supply the Irish and West Indians with hoops for 

 their pork barrels and sugar hogsheads. It therefore de- 

 mands our particular attention; and, from me, that atten- 

 tion it shall have. It is underwood as well as timber; and 

 I shall have to treat of it in both these characters. 



105. As to the soil, no tree that I know of, except the Birch, 

 is so little choice as the Ash. On dry ground, on wet ground, 

 on sand, on chiy, on chalk, and on almost a swamp, if it be 

 not quite filled with water, the Ash will grow and thrive, if 

 it have anything like fair treatment. It has another quality, 



