ASII. The ash is one of the most useful of our British trees, on account of the excel lence of its hard tough wood and the rapidity of its growth. In its appearance too it is singularly graceful for a European tree, often resembling in its slender stems and thin airy foliage the acacias of tropical regions. The principal objection to the ash is the injury it does to the plants which grow in its neigh bourhood, by rapidly exhausting the soil of all its organizable materials.
The principal varieties of the ash are : 1, the Weeping Ash, with all the characters of the common wild tree, except that the branches grow downwards instead of upwards, so that, if grafted upon a lofty stem, the head will soon reach the ground and form a natural arbour. This is said to have originated accidentally in a field at Gamlingay, in Cam bridgeshire ; 2, the Entire-Leaved Ash ; 3, the Curled-Leaved Ash, with very short stunted branches, and deep green crumpled leaves ; 4. the Wailed Ash. In this the stems are covered over with a great number of little grayish brown tubercles. 5. The Small Leaved Ash. 6. The Flowering or Common Manna Ash, whence the manna of the shops is procured.
The uses of the ash in the arts are very numerous. The wood is both elastic and tough. It is used for the telloes and spokes of wheels, the beams of ploughs, the tops of kitchen tables, milk-pails, oars, blocks and pulleys, handles for spades and other imple ments, hop-poles, hoops, crates, basket han dles, fence-wattles, and numerous other pur. poses. In the neighbourhood of the Stafford shire potteries the ash is cultivated to a great extent, and cut every five or six years for crate-wood, which is in much demand in the pottery district. The ashes yield good pot ash ; the bark is used for tanning nets and calf-skins ; the leaves and shoots are used for food by cattle, and the dishonest use ash leaves for adulterating tea; the seeds or keys are sometimes pickled as a sort of salad, and they are used in Siberia to give a flavour to water for drinking. The sap is used for some medicinal purposes. The Flowering Ash, as before stated, yields a juice which solidifies into manna.
The MouNTAIN Asa is wrongly named ; it belongs to another genus of plants.