4§ WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
neither calyx nor corolla, though their association in large 
clusters makes them fairly conspicuous as they droop from 
the sides of the branches in April or May. Stamens and 
pistils are borne by the same or separate flowers, and both 
kinds or one only may be found on the same tree. The 
pistil is a greenish yellow pear-shaped body, and the stamens 
are very dark purple. The flowers are succeeded by bunches 
of “ keys ” — each one, when ripe, a narrow-oblong scale, with 
a notch at one end and a seed lying within at the other. 
The correct name for these is samaras. In looking at a 
bunch of these “ keys ” — they are something like the keys to 
the primitive locks of the ancients — one is struck by the 
fact that they all have a little twist in the wing or sail, 
which causes the “key” to spin steadily on the wind and 
reach the earth seed-end first. They are, therefore, sometimes 
known as “ spinners.” These are ripe in October ; but though 
the trees produce seed nearly every year after the fortieth, 
one may chance to look at a dozen Ashes before he comes 
upon one that bears a seed. The reason for this lies in the 
fact that some trees have no female blossoms. The seeds 
do not germinate until the second spring after they are so\vn. 
Much of the Ash-wood in use for carriage-poles, oars, axe 
and hammer shafts, and similar purposes where only small 
diameters are needed, are obtained from Ash-coppice, which 
rapidly produces well-developed poles. So strong and elastic 
is the Ash timber when taken from young trees, that it is 
claimed it will bear a greater strain than any other European 
timber of equal thickness. The Ash is not one of the long- 
lived trees, its natural span being about two hundred years, 
but its wood is regarded as best between the ages of thirty 
and sixty years. 
Cattle and horses are fond of Ash leaves, which were for- 
merly much used for fodder, and still are in some districts ; 
but it is said that to indulge cows in this food is fatal to 
