THE DEVONSHIRE ASH-TREE CHARM. 
151 
and vegetables, would not come wnere these trees were, or where 
the leaves fell." 
According to Mr. Selby (pp. cit. p. 99) "The leaves [of the Ash] 
are also the food of the larva of several Lepidoptera, among which 
is that of the beautiful Catocala fraxini, and upon the continent, 
in France, Spain, &c, they are the food of the Gantharis vesicatoria, 
blister beetle, which frequently abounds to such an extent as to 
consume the entire foliage, and leave the Ash-trees naked during 
the greater part of the summer ; their presence, however, is attended 
with still more disagreeable consequences, as they exhale a pungent 
and unwholesome smell, and when dead upon the trees, and dried 
to a powder, the particles float in the air, and are apt to be inhaled 
and to produce dangerous symptoms. In the 9th vol. p. 119 of 
the Magazine of Natural History, we are informed by Mr. Giles 
Mumby, that he saw an ash-tree near Dijon which overhung the 
road, so covered with Canth. vesic. that the ground beneath was 
actually blackened with their excrement. Passing beneath the tree 
he felt his face as if bitten by gnats, and a sickening smell was 
perceived when at a considerable distance from it. 
" In a half putrid or decayed state, the wood of the Ash is a 
nidus for the two beetles Dorcas parellipidus and Sinondendron 
cyliiidricum ; the first we have not yet found in Northumberland, 
but the latter is abundant in the decayed wood of the Ash upon 
the banks of the Coquit. The bark, also, in a decaying state, or 
after the tree has been cut down a few months, becomes the nidus 
of the Hylesinus fraxini, a small beetle belonging to the family 
Bostricidce, all the members of which are lignivorous." 
Evelyn {pp. cit. p. 152) states that "The shade of the Ash is 
not to be endured, because the leaves produce a noxious insect." 
4. Ash used medicinally : — Mr. S. Eedmond, of Liverpool, 
writing to Notes and Queries, 4th s., i. 225-6, says, "I have seen 
ash-bark boiled in new milk, and given to children as a specific for 
worms. I have also tasted the decoction, and I have little doubt 
it would not only kill the worms, but the children also, if given 
more than once ; although I was informed it was by the direction 
of a medical man it was given. It is over thirty-rive years since I 
tasted it, and yet the remembrance of that taste is as fresh in my 
memory as if it was yesterday. This sort of medicine (?) was very 
