MAY. 
169 
The ashes are among the last trees that leaf^ and the first 
that shed their leaves. 
C. — The ash, when it grows in a clearing, has great 
grace and elegance, but it wants the massy character of 
foliage that distinguishes some trees. 
F, — Its leaves being pinnate, give it a feathery kind of 
lightness, and its outline is graceful. The two species. White 
Ash f Fraxinus Acuminata ) and Brown Ash ( Fra. Sambu- 
cifolia) are much alike, but are distinguished by the buds, 
the bark, and the wood. The buds of the former are pale 
brown : of the latter nearly or quite black. In both, they 
are large and broad, and intensely bitter. The bark of white 
ash is deeply furrowed, and the ridges cross each other so 
as to give the spaces between a lozenge shape, or what is 
usually called diamond form; that of brown ash is much 
smoother, (though furrowed in old age,) the furrows are 
parallel and perpendicular ; it is more inclined to a yellow 
cast, is more subject to be infested with bunches of moss, 
and may in some degree be peeled off in small thin plates, or 
laminse. I have read in books much doubt respecting the 
cause of the distinction, white and brown, and the conclusion 
that it is from the superior lightness of colour in the bark of 
the former species. But not to mention that this is not so 
in fact, every Canadian farmer knows that it is in the wood 
of these two trees that this distinction is found ; the whole 
heart of the brown ash is of a deep bistre brown, while that 
of the white ash is white from the bark to the centre. The 
wood of the latter is exceedingly tough and elastic, and is in 
much demand for hoops, chair-backs and bottoms, and any 
farming implements in which toughness is the chief requi- 
site ; the grain is large and coarse ; it is capable of being 
torn into long strips, almost as thin as a wafer, which are 
interlaced for bottoms of chairs, and are very durable. The 
sapwood of the brown ash is tough, but not in the same 
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