SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
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of Genesis. The ash, however, was not alone the 
centre of mythical legends ; it had medical quali¬ 
ties, perchance springing originally from mytho¬ 
logical ones. A specimen from Alexis of Piedmont 
must suffice. From him we learn that, if a serpent 
bite a man, a few ash leaves, bruised and laid on the 
wound, will effect a certain cure, or, failing this, a 
drink containing the juice from the leaves will 
suffice. The reason given is characteristic : " because 
that the serpent is so great enemy unto the ashe 
tree, that he would rather go thorow the fire, then 
passe by an ashe” (Alexis, ii. 23 in d.). 
The jet-black flower of the ash is to many pro¬ 
phetical. A common Warwickshire saying is usually 
given thus: 
When the ash flowers before the oak, 
We are sure to have a soak. 
The tree is one of our loftiest and most elegant; 
it reaches in favourable circumstances a height of 
50 to 80 feet, and adds not a little to the beauty 
of a well-wooded landscape. But it is far exceeded 
by the national tree, the oak, grand at all times, even 
in the depth of winter, but especially beautiful when 
the first spring green clothes its rugged and gnarled 
branches, in which dwell hosts of insects, serving to 
add their own wonderful economies to its beauties. 
Some roll the leaves into fairy dwellings, others 
adhere closely to their under surface, while others, 
again, cover its boughs with oak-apples, spangle, 
and cherry-galls. We have but one native species of 
oak, Quercus robur , L., whose mighty trunk reaches 
from 60 to 100 feet, with a girth of 70 feet (at Cow- 
thorpe in Yorkshire); it ranges from Syria and the 
Taurus almost to the Arctic Circle. Shakespeare 
loved the tree in all its phases. He noted it in his 
Arden forest : 
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