20 
FRA 
FRAU'REUTH, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and county of Reus : fix miles north-eaft 
of Greitz. 
FRAUS LE'GIS. In the Englifh jurifprudence, if a 
perfon, having no manner of title to a houfe, procure an 
affidavit ot the fervice of a declaration in ejeftment, and 
thereupon gets judgment; and, by virtue of a writ of 
^ai. fac. p^ejjionem, turns the owner out of poffieffion of 
the houfe, and leizes and converts the goods tlierein to 
his own life, he may be punilhed as a felon ; becaufe he 
iifed the procefs of the law with a felonious purpofe, in 
Jraudem legis. Raym. 276. 
FRAU'STADT, or Wschowa, a town of Poland, in 
the palatinate of Pofen, built and inhabited by Germans, 
on the borders of Silefia, and containing three,proteftant 
churches : tlie chief commerce is in cattle and wool ■.*. 
ibrty-eight miles fouth-weft of Pofen. 
I'RAU'STADT, or Frauenthal, a town of Poland, 
on the frontiers of Silefia, remarkable for a battle fought 
here in 1706, in which the Saxons were defeated by the 
Swedes: feventy miles north-wed of Breflau, and twenty 
north ead of Glogau. 
FRAXINEL'LA, y; in botany. See Dictamnus. 
FRAX'INUS,yi [of Pliny, from Gr. a hedge; 
or from frago, Lat. becaufe it grows in locis fragojis.'} 
The Ash-Tree; in botany, a genus of the clafs poly- 
gamia, order dioecia, or clafs trioecia, order diandria, 
natural order fepiarize, (jafmineae, JnJf.) The generic 
charafters are— I. Hermaphrodite. Calyx: none; or a 
perianthium one-leafed, four-parted, upright, (harp, fmall. 
Corolla : none ; or petals four, linear, long, diarp, up¬ 
right. Stamina : filaments two, upright, much (liorter 
than the corolla ; antherae upright, oblong, four-furrow¬ 
ed. Pidillum : germ ovate, compreiled; dyle cylindric, 
upright; digma thickidi, bifid. Pericarpium: none, ex¬ 
cept the crud of the feed; (capfule two-celled, leafy, 
and flatted at the top. G.) Seed: lanceolate, flatted, 
and membranaceous, one-celled. II. Female. The fame, 
except that it has no damens.— EJjhilial CharaEier. Her¬ 
maphrodite: Calyx none or four-parted ; corolla none or 
four-petalled ; damina two; pidillum one; feed (or cap- 
fule) one, lanceolate. Female: pidillum one, lanceolate. 
Species. I. Fraxinus excelfior, or common adi-tree: 
leaflets lanceolate, ferrate, feffile ; flowers without petals. 
The leaves have generally five pairs of leaflets, and one 
odd one, of a dark green. The flowers are produced in 
loofe fpikes from the fide of the branches, and are luc- 
ceeded by flat feeds which ripen in autumn. The lateral 
buds produce the flowers, and the terminating one the- 
leaves. There are not only hermaphrodite aiid female 
flowers, but alfo male ones, fo that this (pecies diould 
feem referable to the order trioecia. Care (hould be 
taken in obferving the flowers; for in thofe which are 
hermaphrodite, the germ which lies between the two 
damens, does not grow up till fome days after they ap¬ 
pear, fo that at fird they appear to be male flowers. 
What Linnajus calls a feed, others call a capfule; the 
feed being covered with a leathery kind of crud, which 
does not fplit or open. 
Theafli in German and Dutch. \s efehe or afehe-, ip Danifli 
and Swedidi, ajke-, in French,/rewe ; in Italian, yi-^wo ; 
in Spanidi, y}-y?;t); in Portuguefe, yVeAe; in Ruflian,jas, 
jafen, jaJJ'cn \ which name prevails in the dialefts of the 
Sclavonian. The Phiglidi is from the Saxon, as]’C. Ray 
fays it has its name from the colour of. the bark. 
We' mud be careiul not to confound, as fome have 
done, this tree with the mountain a(h, which is totally 
did'erent from it. This has the otp'nhtx excelfior, from the 
loftinefs of the trunk; that of mountain, from the loftinefs 
of the fituation which it delights in. Its ufual form of 
flowering is in March and April, fometimes fo late as 
May; of leafing from April 22 to May 15. Both are 
fometimes much injured by fpring frods. 
7 he timber of the a(h is next in value to the oak, and 
in fome places equal to it. It is hard and tough, and of 
FRA 
excellent ufe to the coach-maker, wheel-wright, and cart- 
wright, for ploughs, axle-trees, fellies, harrows, and many 
other implements of hulbandry ; for ladders, oars, blocks 
for pullies, &c. &c. It makes a very fweet fuel, with 
little fmoke, but is apt to crack and fly in burning. An¬ 
ciently it was in great requed for (pears. For drying 
herrings no wood is like it, and the bark is good for the 
tanning of nets; being not apt to fplit and fcale, it is ex¬ 
cellent for tenons and mortifes; alfo for the cooper, tur¬ 
ner, and thatcher: nothing is like it for pallifade hedges, 
hop-yards, poles, and fpars; handles and docks for tools, 
fpade-trees, &c. When citrioufiy veined, the caljinet- 
makers ufe it, and call it green ebony. The tranfverfe 
fedtion of a branch is fhew’n in the Botany Plate II. fig. i, 
2. vol. iii. 238, 9. 
By a remark in Harrifon’s Defeription of England, pre¬ 
fixed to Hollinfhed, chap. 19. edit. 1586, it is plain, that 
the a(h was then edeemed the propered tree for hop.poles : 
“ l^oles are accounted to be their greated charge (of 
hops). But fith men Jiave learned of late to fow a(hen 
keies in a(h.yards by themfelves, that inconvenience in 
fhort time will be redrelTed.” Adi-pollards are of great 
fervice where fuel is fcarce ; a few of them will produce 
many loads of lop. The loppings m-ake the fweetefl of 
all fires, and will burn well either green or dry; only if 
the branches are I'uffered to grow too large, the lopping 
will proportionably injure the tree. If a wood of thefe 
trees be rightly managed, it will turn greatly to the ad¬ 
vantage of its owner; for by the underwood, which will 
be fit to cut every feven or eight years for hoops, or every 
fourteen years for hop-poles, &c. there will be a conti¬ 
nual income more than fufficient to pay the rent of the 
ground, and all otlier charges, and (till there will be a 
dock preferved for timber, which in a few years will be 
worth forty or fifty (hillings tlie tree. The bed feafon 
for felling tlie a(h is from November to February ; for if 
it be done either too early in autumn, or too late in the 
fpring, the timber will be fubjeft to be infeded with 
worms, and other infetls; but for lopping pollards, the 
fpring is preferable for all foft woods. Mr. Boutcher re¬ 
commends February. The afhes of the wood afford very 
good pot-adi. The bark is ufed for tanning calf-(kin : a 
(light infulion of it appears of a p.ale yellowifh colour 
when viewed againd the light, but when looked down 
upon or placed between the eye and an opake objedl, it 
is blue. This bluenels is dedroyed by the addition of an 
acid, and alkalies recover it again. It will give a good 
green to cloths whicli have been blued. 
•In the north of Lancafhire they log the a(h to feed the 
cattle in autumn, when the grafs is upon the decline ; the 
cattle peeling off the bark. In queen Elizabeth’s time, 
the inhabitants of Colion and Hawklhead fells remon- 
drated againd the number of fOrges in the .country, be¬ 
caufe they confumed all the loppings and croppings, 
whicli were tlte foie winter food for their cattle. In fo- 
reds, the keepers browze the deer on lummer evenings 
with the (pray of adi, that they may not dray too far 
from their walk. The leaves have been gathered to mix 
with tea ; and poor people in fome places have made a 
confiderable advantage by colledbing tliem for this pur¬ 
pofe. An infulion of dhem, from half an ounce to an 
ounce and an half, is a very good purge; and a decoiSfion 
of two drams of the bark or fix drams of the leaves, has 
been ufed to cure agues. If any cows eat of the leaves 
or flioot,s, the butter which is made of their milk will be 
rank ; which is always tlie cafe with the butter w hich is 
made about Guildford and Godalmin, and in fome other 
parts of Surrey, where there are adi-trees growing about 
all their padures: and in good dairy countries they never 
fud'er an alh-tree to grow. The truth of this fatt is 
doubted by others; for it is certain that there is no tade 
in afli-leavCs to countenance the affertion, and that this is 
the next tree after the elm which the Romans recom¬ 
mended for fodder. Cream is apt to turn bitter at the 
fall of the leaf, and the reafon is generally thought to be, - 
, that 
