( 34 ) 
ASHES. 
Except the Oak, no tree of Europe or of North America is so generally 
useful as the Ash. The distinguishing properties of its wood are strength 
and elasticity ; and it unites them in so high a degree, that, for many valu- 
able purposes, it could be but imperfectly replaced by any other tree. 
This remark is particularly applicable to the Common Ash of Europe and 
to the White Ash of the United States, which are the largest species, the 
most multiplied, and the most useful in the arts. 
Eight species of 1 Ash are mentioned by botanists as indigenous to Europe, 
and a much greater number exist in America, as I am convinced by my 
own observations, and by examples, contained in my father’s herbarium or 
cultivated in our gardens and nurseries, of species which escaped my re- 
searches in America. Probably more than thirty species will be found 
east of the Mississippi. 
As a close analogy reigns throughout this genus, each species should be 
raised from the seed, in order to study the development of its vegetation as 
well as the characters of its flowers and its fruit. By observing them while 
young, we shall be able to ascertain the comparative rapidity of their 
growth. My residence in the United States was not long enough for the 
execution of this interesting task ; I have confined myself, therefore, to the 
description of those species which are the most remarkable for their utility 
or for thé form of their seeds. 
[See Nuttall’s Supplement, Vois. 2 & 3.] 
[Soil, Propagation , Sj-c . — The Ash will grow in barren soils, and in the 
bleakest and most exposed situations, but in such will hot attain a timber- 
like size. If planted by ditch sides, or in low boggy situations, according 
to Withering, the roots act as under-drains, and render the ground about 
them firm and hard, but Sang observes more correctly that the Ash is 
found in the highest perfection on dry loamy soils, and that in moist but 
not wet soils, it grows fast, but soon sickens ; retentive clay soils do not 
agree with it. In rich soils its wood is short and brittle ; in sandy soils it 
is tough and reedy, qualities, which for several purposes much enhance its 
-value. In loam mixed with decomposed rocks, at the bottom of a moun- 
