Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/240

Ash woods, supposed to be wild, occur on limestone in hilly districts in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Somerset. In the latter county, they are very numerous in the Mendip Hills, and have been mapped by Mr. C.E. Moss,’ who gives an in- teresting account of their distribution and peculiar features. The ash is often pure, with a dense undergrowth of hazel, or it is mixed with yew and whitebeam. Mr. Moss notices the prevalence of dog’s mercury and wood garlic® in many of these ash woods.

The Gaelic name of the ash, according to Sir H. Maxwell,’ is uinnuse (inshy), and becomes Inshawhill in Wigtonshire, and the plural uinnsean (inshan) takes the peculiar form of Inshanks, the name of two places in that county, and Inshewan, near Kirriemuir ; while the common alternative form uinnseog (inshog) remains as Inshock in Forfarshire, Inshaig in Argyllshire, Inshog near Nairn. Analogous forms,* with the initial letter f appear in names of places in the south and west of Ireland, as the river Funcheon in Co. Cork. (A.H.)

Though the oak will always be looked on as the premier tree of Great Britain, yet now that its most important use has passed away, the ash must be considered as the most economically valuable of all our native trees, and is perhaps the only hardwood from which a quick and certain return can be expected by the planter.

It is almost the only tree whose value has not fallen in consequence of foreign competition, and, though a good deal of American and some Hungarian and Japanese ash is now imported, yet the timber of these is not considered equal for toughness, strength, and elasticity to the best English ash, for which no foreign wood forms an efficient substitute. And as the tree can be grown over all parts of our islands, and attains a great size wherever suitable soil is found, it should be planted more largely in all favourable situations, where it produces timber of good quality.

In considering the requirements of the ash, one must always remember that it is a bad neighbour both to other trees and to crops, and that it is far more valuable as timber when grown in woods where it can be drawn up to a good height, than in hedgerows where it produces many branches. It likes a deep, rich soil, neither too wet nor too dry, and grows very well on limestone formations, even on a shallow soil, if the rock is sufficiently disintegrated for the roots to penetrate the crevices.

It is short-lived on wet or swampy soils, and the timber is inferior on sandy or peaty land. The finest trees are generally in sheltered situations, but though it is the latest of our native trees to come into leaf, none suffers more from late frosts ; and therefore when planted in low situations it is often severely injured when young. It will grow up to a great elevation, and in the most exposed situa- tions, though here it becomes stunted and branchy. No hardwood except that of the chestnut becomes valuable at so early an age, but the wood of old trees, even when sound, usually becomes discoloured or “ black-hearted,” and ash is never

1 Geog. Distribution of Vegetation in Somerset, 41 (Roy. Geog. Soc., 1907).

2 Mr. A.C. Forbes, in Eng. Estate Forestry, 72 (1904) says:—"We have always noticed that the existence of the wild garlic, Allium ursinum, is an almost certain indication of good ash ground.”

3 Scottish Land Names, 109 (1894).

4 Cf. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 488 (1870).