486 
sold for thirteen pounds. At Leixlip castle is a row of eighteen Ash-trees, on a very bleak exposure, 
measuring from nine to twelve feet round, with fair stems of considerable height, and fine branch¬ 
ing heads. At Donirey near Clare castle in the county of Galway, is an old Ash that at four feet 
from the ground measures forty-two feet in circumference, at six feet high thirty-three feet; the 
trunk has long been quite hollow, a little school having been kept in it; there are few branches 
remaining, but these are fresh, and very vigorous. Near Kennity church in the Kings county is 
an Ash whose trunk is twenty-one feet ten inches round, and it is seventeen feet high before the 
branches break out; these are of enormous bulk. When a funeral of the lower class passes by, they 
lay the corpse down for a few minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase the heap, 
which has been accumulating round the root. Finally, in the church-yard of Lochabar in Scotland, 
Dr. Walker measured the trunk of a dead Ash, which at five feet from the surface of the ground, 
was fifty-eight feet in circumference. 
The facility with which the Ash is propagated, and adapts itself to any soil or situation, even 
the worst; the quickness of its growth, and the general demand for the timber in every part of the 
country, for a variety of rural and economical purposes, recommend this tree very much to the 
planter. As a farther encouragement, Mr. Boutcher has given an instance of the great profit of an 
Ash plantation, in a small experiment, which he thus relates. 
On half a rood of heavy meadow, chiefly barren red clay and moss, he planted Ash-trees six 
years old, and eight feet high, in rows four feet asunder, and two feet distance in the row; after four 
years he cut them down within five inches of the ground. Having more than he wanted, in seven 
years he sold half for pollards and hoops for forty shillings. In six years he cut them again, and 
sold them at the same price. There remained now twenty trees, intended to stand for timber, but 
he was obliged to sell them at twenty-three years growth for seven shillings a tree. Thus would an 
acre of indifferent ground properly situated for sale yield in twenty-three years one hundred and 
fifteen pounds ten shillings, without any other expense than digging the ground for the first five or 
six years, and cutting the coppice. Care should be taken to cut them slanting, with a sharp instru¬ 
ment, leaving all the wounds smooth and clean. Observe that no price is mentioned for the first 
cutting, which he used himself; and that he found he should have had at least one third more for 
the price of the last cutting. He also found that he had planted too thick, and that he should have 
Tad more wood, if the rows had been six feet asunder, and the sets three feet distant in the row. 
Species 2. Manna Ash-tree. (Fraxinus Rotundifolxa.) 
The shoots of the Manna Ash are much shorter, and the joints closer together than those of the 
common Ash: the leaflets are shorter, with deeper serratures on their edges, and of a lighter green : 
the flowers come out from the side of the branches, are of a purple colour, and appear in the spring 
before the leaves come out. This tree is of humble growth, seldom rising to more than fifteen or 
sixteen feet in height in England. 
It was cultivated here in 1697, by the Dutchess of Beaufort.* 
The lower parts of the mountains in Calabria abound with the Manna Ash, which grows spon¬ 
taneously, and without any culture; except that the woodmen cut down all the strong stems that 
grow above the thickness of a naan’s leg. Towards the end of July, the gatherers of manna 
make an horizontal gash, inclining upwards, in the bole of the tree. As the liquor never oozes out 
* Ilort. Kew. 
