Levant, and were introduced in 1710 and 1822; 
one, the silvery, is a native of Corsica, and was 
introduced in 1825; about twenty-six other in- 
troduced species are natives of North America, 
and were introduced at various dates between 
1723 and 1825, but principally during the last 
four years of that period; and five or six other 
species known to botanists have not yet been in- 
troduced. The flowering-ash and the mountain- 
ash, however, are excluded from these statements ; 
for they botanically possess quite different names 
and characters, and they will form the subject of 
our two next articles. 
The common ash, /raxinus excelsior, is much 
the tallest, most conspicuous, most valuable, and 
most widely diffused species, and requires to be 
noticed at some length, both on its own account, 
and as an imposing specimen of the genus. — It 
grows naturally in the woods of most parts of 
Great Britain; it has been very extensively 
planted, in almost all the methods of forestry 
from the isolated tree to the grand expanse of 
wood; it has an appearance at once arresting, 
imposing, and full of character ; and it is, in con- 
| sequence, known to all observers, and quite famil- 
iar to even the majcrity of children. Its very 
notoriety occasions it to be regarded by many 
feeble minds as somewhat vulgar, and requires a 
little effort of taste and judgment in order to the 
full appreciation of its extraordinary nobleness 
and beauty. It is, beyond all question, a tree of 
surpassing elegance, whether viewed in itself, or 
contrasted with trees of heavier foliage. “I have 
sometimes,” says Gilpin, “heard the oak called 
the Hercules of the forest, and the ash the Venus. 
The comparison is not amiss; for the oak joins 
the idea of strength to beauty, while the ash 
rather joins the ideas of beauty and elegance. 
Virgil marks the character of the ash as parti- 
| cularly beautiful—Praxinus in sylvis pulcher- 
rima. The ash generally carries its principal 
stem higher than the oak, and rises in an easy, 
flowing line. But its chief beauty consists in 
the lightness ofits wholeappearance. Its branches 
at first keep close to the trunk, and form acute 
angles with it; but as they begin to lengthen, 
they generally take an easy sweep ; and the loose- 
ness of the leaves corresponding with the light- 
ness of the spray, the whole forms an elegant de- 
pending foliage. Nothing can have a better effect 
than an old ash hanging from the corner of a 
wood, and bringing off the heaviness of the other 
foliage with its loose pendent branches.” 
The common ash usually grows to the height 
of about 80 feet, but often exceeds 100, and some- 
times attains to upwards of 120. Its branches 
are flatly smooth; its leaflets are generally ar- 
and are of a very dark green colour, somewhat 
stalked in position, pointedly spear-shaped in 
form, and slightly serrated in the edge; and the 
flowers have a green colour, are produced in long 
spikes from the side of the branches, and bloom 
eal 
ranged in five pairs, with an odd one at the end,: 
in April and May ; and the seeds or “keys” which 
succeed the flowers are flat, and ripen and fall 
in autumn. This elegant tree, however, is among 
the latest of our hardy ornamental trees to foliate 
in spring, and one of the earliest to suffer deface- 
ment and lose its leaves in autumn. When it 
occupies a conspicuous place in the home-view of 
a park, it gives tothe surrounding grounds a late 
and cold appearance in spring; and when grow- 
ing in any exposed situation in either field, park, 
or forest, it sustains great and irreparable injury | 
from the earliest frosts or tempestuous winds of | 
autumn, and, instead of contributing a mellow 
tint to the scenery of the landscape, shrinks from 
the blast, drops its leaves, and presents wide 
blanks of desolated boughs amidst surrounding 
foliage and verdure. Its leaves and rinds are 
likewise so greedily eaten by sheep, cattle, and 
deer, and form so constant and favourite a por- 
tion of the forage of the last of these, that such 
trees as are not specially protected by situation 
or fences present, in the very blush of summer, a 
mangled and deformed appearance. Yet a fre- 
quent compensating feature is the formation on 
the tree’s leading branches of a sort of excrescence 
called a wreathed fascia. A branch which pos- 
sesses this curious feature is beautifully twisted | 
and curled, and occasionally seems decorated as | 
with a ram’s hern, a crosier, or a piece of ara- 
besque tracery. The fascia has been ascribed by 
same naturalists to a too rapid ascent of the sap; 
yet really seems occasioned in every instance by 
the operation of insects; and, though often seen 
in the willow, the holly, and some other trees, is | 
most characteristic of the ash. 
An ash of 132 feet in height, is mentioned by 
Evelyn; and one of 70 feet high, in the thirty- 
fifth year of its growth, is mentioned by Arthur 
Young. In 1784, an ash in the churchyard of | 
Bonhill, in Dumbartonshire, measured 17? feet | 
in girth at 4 feet from the ground, and 33 feet in | 
girth at one foot from the ground; it divided into | 
three great arms, at the height of 6 feet ; and it | 
had a vast spreading head, and was obviously of 
great age, yet did not measure more than about | 
50 feet in total height. An ash at the burying- 
place of the Lochiel family in Lochaber was long 
regarded as the largest tree in the Scottish high- 
lands, but was revengefully burnt to the ground || 
in 1746 by the Hanoverian soldiery ; and in 1764, || 
its stump, at the surface of the ground, was as- || 
certained to have an extreme diameter of 17 feet 
3 inches, a cross diameter of 21 feet, and a cir- 
cumference of 58 feet. An ash at Earlsmill in 
Morayshire is noticed by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder 
as one of the most magnificent trees he ever be- 
held; it measured upwards of 17 feet in girth at 
3 feet from the ground; it had in its trunk a 
cavity sufficiently large to allow three persons 
to stand in it upright; and, though it had con- | 
tained that cavity during the memory of the || 
oldest inhabitants of the district, it had a sur- | 
passingly grand head, formed of three enormous 
| 
incl 
