Among the Trees at Elmridge

mild enough for the piazza. "You told us so many interesting things about t

y an American tree, belongs to a large and interesting family, and I am quite sure that you will very much like to hear something about it. I have put i

ak's befor

may expec

ash is 'f

ust beware

ter considering this rather puzzli

'a splash,' it is to be hoped that the ash will not get ahead of the oak. I do not know what they are doing in England this year, but here the oak is a day or two ahead. The

," was the p

trees on the other side of

OMMON

es. It is said to be more common in America than in any other part of the globe. In Europe, because of its beauty, it is called the painter's tree. It is a particularly neat and reg

AN WHI

able-garden," was the reply,

en plain it throws out its branches, with a gentle double curvature, to a distance on every side, and forms a broad, round head of great beauty. The flowers of the ash are greenish white in color and appear with the leaves in loose clusters. 'The trunk of our largest American ash is covered with a whitis

d Clara, "because that pretty set in the large s

d light. It does not last so long as the oak, but it is more elastic and can better resist sudden shocks and jerks; it is therefore particularly desirable for the spokes of wheels and ladders and the beams of floors. Staircases

for noth

ad something to say, and I sh

hey bear in autumn, Miss Harson; it look

m very sour, although pretty to look at; but the little feathered wanderers eat them with great relish when the snows of winter make bird-food scarce and the bright-red berries gleam out most invitingly. In some parts of Europe the berries are dried and ground into flour. The rowan, or roa

es have

e is roan-

t true, is it?

hings, and the leaves and twigs of the ash tree were thought to have peculiar virtue. In some places it w

h, I do t

s to meet

k I get f

r be on t

ren say on finding a four-

' In old times the ash was believed to perform wonderful cures of various kinds, and in remote parts of England a little mouse called the shrew-mouse bore a very bad character. If a horse or cow had pains in its limbs, they were said to be caused by a shrew-mouse running over it. Our f

r little mouse get ou

d in harvest-time children were suspended in their cradles from the branches of tall ash trees while their mothers were working in the harvest-field below. Even now serpents are said to dislike the tree so much that they will not come near it

" said Clara, who had rather a tal

s Harson, "while ash-leaves do not grow everywhere; and

t to be found in the forest. It is often seventy or eighty feet tall, with a trunk not more than a foot around. The color of the trunk is a dark granite-gray an

t is a spreading, broad-headed tree, and the trunk is erect and branching.

t the proper season the persons whose business it is to collect manna begin to make incisions, one after the other, up the stem. The manna flows out like clear water, but it soon congeals and becomes a solid substance. It ha

ory about the as

y--"only a little legend of the manna tre

nna trees, as if they disapproved of this ungenerous arrangement, refused to yield any manna, and suddenly became bare and barren. Upon this the king, finding his scheme a failure, revoked the tax and took away the fence. Then the trees

SW

f and see if there is not a tree somewhere on the grounds, with two ropes at

, who seated herself all ready for the push which Malcolm would not grudge