140 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
stem higher than the oak, and rises in an easy flowing line. 
But its chief beauty consists in the lightness of its whole 
appearance. Its branches at first keep close to the trunk 
and form acute angles with it ; but as they begin to lengthen 
they generally take an easy sweep, and the looseness of the 
leaves corresponding with the lightness of the spray, the 
whole forms an elegant depending foliage. Nothing can 
have a better effect than an old ash hanging from the cornel 
of a wood, and bringing off the heaviness of the othei 
foliage with its loose pendent branches .” — ( Forest Scenery , 
p. 82 .) 
The highest and most characteristic beauty of the Ame 
rican White ash (and we consider it the finest of all the 
species) is the coloring which its leaves put on in autumn. 
Gilpin complains that the leaf of the European ash “ decays 
in a dark, muddy, unpleasing tint.” Not so the White ash. 
In an American wood, such as often lines and overhangs 
the banks of the Hudson, the Connecticut, and many of 
our noble northern streams, the ash assumes peculiar beauty 
in autumn, when it can often be distinguished from the 
surrounding trees for four or five miles, by the peculiar and 
beautiful deep brownish purple of its fine mass of foliage. 
This color, though not lively, is so full and rich as to pro- 
duce the most pleasing harmony with the bright yellows 
and reds of the other deciduous trees, and the deep green 
of the pines and cedars. 
The ash, unlike the elm, starts into vegetation late in the 
spring, which is an objection to planting it in the immediate, 
vicinity of the house. In winter the long greyish white or 
ash-colored branches are pleasing in tint, compared witn 
tiiose of other deciduous trees. 
