site, petiolated, of from 5 to 13, nearly sessile, egg-spear-shaped, 
pointed, serrated, smooth leaflets, whose main rib is fringed beneath ; 
their common peduncle channelled and bordered. Flowers in lateral 
•panicles or bunches, small, brown, and very simple, having neither 
calyx nor corolla, and consisting only of a pistil, with (usually) one 
short stamen at each side (see fig. 1). Occasionally, on the same 
tree, there are, besides the perfect flowers, some with stamens only 
(fig. 2) ; and others with pistils only (fig. 3). On this account 
Linnaeus placed it in his 23rd class, Polygamia. Capsules (see 
figs. 4 & 5.) with a flat, leaf-like termination, an inch long, and ge- 
nerally of 2 cells, with 1 seed in each ; these are called, by our 
country people, ash keys. Seeds (fig. 6, 6.) oblong, glittering with 
rusty-coloured meal, like an almond, but bitter and nauceous, at- 
tached to the receptacle by a long umbilical cord ( funiculus um- 
bilicalisj, see fig. 6, a. 
The Ash, when well grown, is a very elegant and graceful tree ; Gilpin 
styles it, and not inappropriately, the Venus of the Forest. It yields a valu- 
able timber, which is hard and lough, and of excellent use to the coachmaker, 
wheelwright, and Cartwright, for ploughs, axle-trees, fellies, harrows, and 
many other implements of husbandry. When curiously veined, as it sometimes 
is, the cabinet-makers use it, and call it green Ebony ; and when our woodmen 
light upon it, says Evelyn, they may make what money they will of it. The 
wood of the Ash possesses the very singular property of being in perfection 
even in infancy, — a pole three inches in diameter being as valuable and dura- 
ble, for any purpose to which it can be applied, as the timber of the largest tree. 
Of all timber it is the sweetest fuel, and will burn even whilst it is green, with 
very little smoke. The ashes of the branches and shoots afford very good pot- 
ash ; the bark is used for tanning nets and calf-skins ; and the leaves for 
adulterating tea; an infusion of them is an aperient; and a decoction of two 
drachms of the bark, or six of the leaves, has been used in the cure of agues. 
If cows eat the leaves or shoots, the butter from their milk is said to be rank ; 
but this is doubtful, for there is no taste in ash-leaves to countenance the 
assertion, and the Romans recommended the leaves of the Ash, next to those 
of the Elm, for fodder. The Ash is, however, a very improper tree for hedge- 
rows, and the borders of arable land, as the drip of it is very unfavourable to 
all other productions, and it exhausts the soil much, and the roots spread widely 
near the surface, so that it injures the hedge, and impoverishes the crop sown 
near it. 
It is late before it comes into leaf, and its foliation affords a just criterion to the 
gardener when prudently to venture green-house plants into the open air; and 
the first change of its leaves in the Autumn, should be considered the signal tor 
withdrawing them. In the dark ages the Ash was associated with vaiious gross 
superstitions, whose vestiges may still be traced in many parts of Britain. — 
Accounts of several superstitious ceremonies connected with the tree in question, 
may be seen in Evelyn’s Silva ; Pn 1 1 . lips’ Sylva Florifera ; Kent’s Sylvan 
Sketches; Loudon’s Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum ; Withering’s 
Arranyement of British Plants, (7th ed.) ; Don’s General System of Garden- 
ing and Botany ; and The Gentleman’ s Magazine, V. 55. ( 1785) p. 798. 
Several varieties of the Ash are cultivated in gardens, particularly that with 
pendulous branches, called the Weeping Ash. 
Fraxinus heterophylla of Smith’s English Flora, is considered by many as 
only a variety of the present species ; a solitary tree of it is growing near the top 
of the horse- walk, Christ Church Meadow, Oxford. 
Spha'ria concentrica. Bolt.; S. pruinosa, Fries; S. cortices. Sow.; and 
Hysterium Frdxini, Pers. ; are parasitic on decaying and dead trunks and 
branches of the Ash, about Oxford. 
