u I|ottii0 Naturalist : 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 32. 



JUNE 5th, 1880. 



Vol. 1 



THE OAK AND THE ASH. 



THEKE is a rhyme often used in 

 the North of England, and per- 

 haps elsewhere, to the following effect : 

 " When the Oak is in leaf before the Ash, 

 Then we'll have a Summer of splash ; 

 "When the Ash is in leaf before the Oak, 

 Then we'll have a Summer of smoke." 

 This is equivalent to saying that the 

 oak leafing before the ash is a sign of a 

 wet summer ; and the ash leafing first, 

 a sign of a hot and dry season. I wish 

 to draw the attention of the readers of 

 the Young Naturalist to the rhyme, and 

 to ask if the Ash is ever in leaf before 

 the Oak. I do not mean, is there ever 

 a solitary Ash tree that puts forth its 

 leaves before some solitary Oak has 

 done so ; but is there ever a season 

 when the Ash generally, throughout the 

 country, is in leaf first. The Tyneside 

 Natural History Society published for 

 several years, tables of the budding, 

 leafing, &c, of many kinds of trees at 

 various stations in the Northern 

 countries. On examining their tables 

 I have found one record only, at one 

 station, of the Ash leafing before the 

 Oak ; yet the tables cover more than 

 one dry hot year, as well as more than 

 one cold wet year. In my own ex- 



perience I have never seen the Ash 

 precede the Oak in putting forth its 

 foliage. Yet so many of these old 

 sayings are the result of observation 

 at a period when there were no books, 

 and the late leafing of both trees is 

 generally so noticeable, that I feel loth 

 to disbelieve altogether in such a pretty 

 theory. Mr. Tennyson is a close 

 observer of nature, and he has made 

 many happy illustrations from trees, 

 which seem great favorites with him 

 for this purpose. Who knew, till he 

 told us, what color Ash buds were in 

 March, 



" Black as Ash buds in March," 

 and other passages in his poems, on 

 similar points are equally felicitous, and 

 true to nature. Is he right then about 

 the Ash when he says, 

 ' 1 Delaying as the tender Ash delays, 

 To clothe herself, when all the woods are green. " 

 This certainly implies that the Ash is 

 the last tree of all to put forth its 

 leaves. Yet I have heard the old 

 rhyme, or the gist of it quoted many 

 and many a time by country people, as 

 an infallible evidence of what the 

 coming season will be. Can any reader 

 of the Young Naturalist help in the 

 matter with evidence one way or 



