CHAP. 24. (13.)—TREES THE WOOD OF WHICH IS HIGHLY VALUED.
FOUR VARIETIES OF THE ASH.
It is for the sake of their timber that Nature has created the
other trees, and more particularly the ash,[1] which yields it in
greater abundance. This is a tall, tapering tree, with a
feather-like leaf: it has been greatly ennobled by the encomiums of Homer, and the fact that it formed the spear of
Achilles:[2] the wood of it is employed for numerous purposes.
The ash which grows upon Mount Ida, in Troas, is so extremely like the cedar,[3] that, when the bark is removed, it
will deceive a purchaser.
The Greeks have distinguished two varieties of this tree,
the one long and without knots, the other short, with a harder
wood, of a darker colour, and a leaf like that of the laurel.
In Macedonia they give the name of "bumelia"[4] to an ash
of remarkably large size, with a wood of extreme flexibility.
Some authors have divided this tree into several varieties, ac-
cording to the localities which it inhabits, and say that the
ash of the plains has a spotted wood, while that of the mountain ash is more compact. Some Greek writers have stated
hat the leaf of the ash is poisonous[5] to beasts of burden, but
harmless to all the animals that ruminate[6] The leaves of
his tree in Italy, however, are not injurious to beasts of burden even; so far from it, in fact, that nothing has been found
to act as so good a specific for the bites of serpents[7] as to drink
the juice extracted from the leaves, and to apply them to the
wounds. So great, too, are the virtues of this tree, that no
serpent will ever lie in the shadow thrown by it, either in the
morning or the evening, be it ever so long; indeed, they will
always keep at the greatest possible distance from it. We
state the fact from ocular demonstration,[8] that if a serpent
and a lighted fire are placed within a circle formed of the leaves
of the ash, the reptile will rather throw itself into the fire than
encounter the leaves of the tree. By a wonderful provision
of Nature, the ash has been made to blossom before the serpents leave their holes, and the fall of its leaf does not take
place till after they have retired for the winter.
1. He does not speak in this place of the "ornus" or "mountain ash;"
nor, as Fée observes, does he mention the use of the bark of the ash as a
febrifuge, or of its leaves as a purgative. This ash is the Fraxinus excelsior of Decandolles.
2. Il. xxiv. 277.
3. Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus, who says
that it is the yew that bears so strong a resemblance to the cedar.
4. Or "bull's-ash." This variety does not seem to have been identified.
5. This statement results from his misinterpretation of the language of
Theophrastus, who is really speaking of the yew, which Pliny mistakes
or the ash.
6. Miller asserts that, if given to cows, this leaf will impart a bad flavour
to the milk; a statement which, Fée says, is quite incorrect.
7. A merely fanciful notion, without apparently the slightest foundation:
the same, too, may be said of the alleged antipathy of the serpent to the
beech-tree, which is neither venomous nor odoriferous.
8. This story of Pliny has been corroborated by M. de Verone, and as
strongly contradicted by Camerarius and Charras: with M. Fée, then, we
must leave it to the reader to judge which is the most likely to be speaking
the truth. It is not improbable that Pliny may have been imposed upon,
as his credulity would not at all times preclude him from being duped.