TREES— THE ASH. 
235 
abound in the cultivated rice plantations of Carolina, where they 
also linger a while, but finally they retreat to the ti’opical islands. 
Altogether, few birds are so long on their progress southward. 
Tuesday, *Ith . — Walked in the Great Meadow. The old trees 
which bordered this fine field in past years are fast falling before 
the axe. A few summers back, this Avas one of the most beautiful 
meadows in the valley : a broad, grassy lawn of some twenty 
acres, shut out from the Avorld by a belt of wood sweeping round 
it in a Avide circle ; it Avas favorite ground Avith some of us, one 
of those spots where the sweet quiet of the fields, and the deeper 
calm of the forest, are brought together. On one hand, the trees 
Avere of a younger groAVth, luxuriant and grove-like in aspect, but 
beyond, the Avood rose from the bank of the river in tall, grand 
columns, of ligliter and darker shades of gray. Nothing can be 
more different than the leafy, bowery border of a common wood, 
where one scarcely sees the trunks, and the bounds Avhich mark 
a breach in the ancient forest. The branchless shafts of those 
aged oaks, pines, chestnuts, hemlocks and ashes, are veiy im- 
pressive objects, forming in such positions a noble forest portal. 
We have frequently stood upon the highway, perhaps half a mile 
off, to admire those great trunks lighted up by the sunshine, with 
which they had so lately made acquaintance ; there are feAV such 
forest colonnades left in our neighborhood, and this is now falling 
rapidly before the axeman. 
The hoary trunks of the ashes are particularly fine in such situ- 
ations ; they are the lightest in coloring among our larger trees, 
as the shaft of the hemlocks is the darkest. The ashes of this 
country very frequently grow in low grounds on the banks of 
rivers. We have many varieties of this fine tree in the United 
