40 
COMMON EUROPEAN ASIE 
sesses all the properties for which the other is esteemed, and in the ports 
of the Middle and Northern States they are indifferently applied to the 
same diversified uses ; that of the Red Ash, however, is somewhat harder, 
and consequently less elastic. Notwithstanding its inferiority of size, the 
Red Ash is perhaps more valuable for the regions' to which it has been 
assigned by nature ; of this the Americans will he able to judge by expe- 
rience ; both species are of such general utility that the utmost pains 
should be bestowed upon their preservation and increase. 
PLATE CXIX. 
A branch with leaves of half the natural size. Fig. 1 , Seeds of the natural 
size. 
COMMON EUROPEAN ASH. 
Fraxinus excelsior. F. foliis subsessilibus, lanceolato-oblongis, attenuatis, 
serratis ; floribus nudis ; seminibus apice emarginatis. 
The Ash is the most common and the most useful species of its genus 
upon the Old Continent. Like the Common Oak and the White Oak, it 
is found throughout Europe and the north of Asia, and as it is less sensible 
to cold, would probably he more multiplied than the Oaks were it not re- 
stricted to certain soils. It is found almost exclusively on the borders of 
rivers and swamps, and in places constantly cool and shaded, without being 
exposed to inundation ; in a word, in situations analogous to those which, 
in the United States, produce the White Ash and the Red Ash. 
The Common Ash is ranked among trees of the first order. It is some- 
times 90 feet high and 9 or 10 feet in circumference; hut when 60 or TO 
feet in height, it is in perfection for all the uses to which it is applied. 
The trunk is straight and well-proportioned ; the branches are opposite, 
covered, while young, with a smooth, greenish bark, and garnished with 
