110 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 18. 
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1 
wood of the Larch is especially unsuited. On this 
point, we will only extract what Dr. Martyn says, in his 
edition of “Miller’s Gardeners’ Dictionary”:—“Larch 
wood is in a manner incombustible ; that is, though it 
may be consumed by lire, yet, where the masses are 
large, even if a fire be placed on the bare wood, though 
it will be slowly corroded by it, yet, unless in particular 
circumstances, it cannot be made to flame, so as to 
communicate it to other bodies.” It is this difficult 
combustibility which renders it well fitted for employ¬ 
ment in furnaces where coal is not to be had; and, 
consequently, it is thus used in the Ironworks of Styria. 
For many reasons we incline to the opinion that the 
Oran of Isaiah was a species of Ash. In the first 
place, Aran is the Arabic for a species of this tree, 
agreeing, according to the descriptions given by Arabic 
writers, with the Lentisk Ash, the Fraxinus lentiscifolia 
of modern botanists. “ It is,” says Dr. Lindley, “ a 
most graceful species, with long, narrow leaves, com¬ 
posed of five or six pairs of small, distinct, sharply 
saw-edged, shining leaflets. It inhabits the country 
about Aleppo, and is hardy in this country, where it 
forms a tree of the most elegant appearance, inter¬ 
mediate, as it were, in form between a Willow and 
an Ash. The branches are deep rich purple.” 
The graceful pendulous habit of this tree satisfies 
Dr. Parkhurst’s derivation having allusion to its freely 
waving too and fro. Then, its native country is ad¬ 
joining Judsea, being the ancient Bertea, and the pro¬ 
perties popularly attributed to the Ash, are such as 
would suggest its adoption for the formation of an idol. 
In confirmation of the belief that the Oran was a 
species of Ash, we may observe that the Talmudists 
generally so consider it; nor is it inapplicable evidence 
that Ornus, the Roman name for an Ash, is but the 
and held in no small veneration as a Shrew Ash, prepared 
with certain ceremonies and incantations, so that its branches 
gently applied to the limbs of cattle supposed to be suffering 
cruel anguish from the baneful run of the shrew-mouse, 
produced instant relief. In Queen Elizabeth’s time, the in¬ 
habitants of Colton and Hawkshead Fell remonstrated 
against the' number forges in the country, because they 
consumed all the loppings and cropping, the sole winter 
food for their cattle. Penn. Tour. 1772, p. 29. Ash is also 
used for oars and pullies, and much employed by coach 
makers. The wood hath the singular advantage of being 
nearly as valuable when young as when old. It is hard and 
tough, and is much used to make the tools employed in 
husbandry, carts, wains, &c.: for the wheelwright, maiden 
poles, the first cuttings are esteemed most valuable: the 
after stoles, which may be cut every few years, are not of so 
good quality. The ashes of the wood afford very good 
pot ash. The bark is used for tanning calf-skin.” 
Finally, we may observe that veneration for the Ash 
is traceable among many nations, and to the most 
distant ages. In the Edda of the Saxons, man is de¬ 
scribed as being formed from its wood, and the earliest 
of Greek historians, Hesiod, says his brazen race of 
men were similarly made, and among his sylvan deities 
were the Nymphs of the Ash, Meliai. 
Thf. May Meeting of th e Entomological Society was held 
on'tbe 1st instant, H. T. Stainton, Esq., Vice President, 
in the chair. Amongst the donations received for the 
Society’s Library, since the last meeting, wer’e the 
publications of the Royal Society; the Society of Arts; 
the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool; 
the “Revue de Zoologie,” of M. Guerin Meneville; the 
first volume of a very elaborate work on the Genera of 
Beetles, “ Genera des Coleopteres,” by M. Lacordaire, 
the well-known entomologist of Liege; and the first two 
numbers of a work by Messrs. Duval and Migneau, 
containing beautiful figures of the Genera of the 
Hebrew name latinised. 
That the properties vulgarly attributed to the Ash, as 
well as its good qualities, are such as would suggest its 
use in making idols, will appear from the following 
particulars. These particulars, we are quite aware, are 
related concerning the common Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, 
but we can bear testimony that nearly similar super¬ 
stitions are attached to other species, and that their 
useful qualities, especially those of F. lentiscifolia, are 
almost as excellent:— 
“ The Ash tree has been styled by Gilpin, and not inap¬ 
propriately, the Venus of the forest; 
‘Fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima : ’ 
(The Aah, fairest among trees.) 
“In the darker ages the Ash was associated with various 
gross superstitions, whose vestiges may still be traced, as by 
Mr. White, in Hampshire. ‘ In a farm-yard near the middle 
of the village of Selborne, stands,’ (in 1776) ‘a row of 
pollard Ashes, which by the seams and long cicatrices down 
their sides, manifestly show that, in former times, they had 
been cleft asunder. These trees, when young and flexible, 
were severed and held open by wedges, while ruptured 
children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, 
under a persuasion that, by such a process, the poor babes 
would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation 
was over, the tree was plastered with loam, and carefully 
swathed up. On the Plestor, an area near the church, lately 
stood a very old grotesque hollow pollard, 
‘ Religione patrum multos servata per annos.’ 
Coleoptera of Europe. The volume of M. Lacordaire 
contains the Cicindelidm, Carabidffi, and Water Beetles, 
whilst the latter authors have commenced their illustra¬ 
tions with the Bruchidte and Weevils. Both these 
works are indispensable to the student of Coleoptera; 
and, what is equally to the purpose, both are very cheap, 
and at the same time very good. 
Messrs. Dale, Wallace, and Bates, were elected 
members of the Society. 
The Rev. Joseph Greene exhibited specimens of the 
very rare moths Notodonta cucullina and N. trepida, 
bred from larvte captured at Halton; Mr. Edwin Shep¬ 
herd, specimens of the equally rare Ephyra pietaria, 
also reared from the larvie; and Mr. F. Bond, specimens 
of Antielea herherata, also reared, the upper wings on 
I each side being different in their markings. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited the caterpillars of a minute 
moth, Elachista eertisella, which was found mining in 
the leaves of a reed, and of E. Pocc of Dough, found in 
the leaves of Poa aquatica. 
Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited a pair of the very rare 
Notodunta carnielita, the female still alive and laying 
eggs; also a very fine specimen of N. Dictceoides ; and 
specimens of the rare beetle, llylacetus Dermestoides, 
with its larva and pupa found on the bark of Birch 
