Ash, an exceedingly useful and handsome tree of the north temperate zone. There are about fifty species. The ashes are fine shade and ornamental trees. The English ash and the white ash of America yield valuable timber, much used for tool handles, wagon tongues, inside finish of houses, furniture, splint baskets, cars, and all other purposes for which a light, straight-grained, moderately tough wood is desired. We have a white ash, a black ash, a red ash, a blue ash, a water ash, a green ash, and several others which it is sometimes almost impossible to tell apart. In the south of Europe, especially in Italy, grows the manna, or flowering ash. From it a white substance called manna is obtained by cutting the bark. Sometimes this substance drops from the leaves without any artificial stimulus. In warm countries the common ash also is said to produce a whitish substance like manna. Cultivated varieties of ash are: the weeping ash, the branches of which bend almost to the ground; the curled-leaved ash, and the entire-leaved ash, with many of the leaves simple, instead of compound as is usual. The flowers of the ash appear in early spring before the leaves. The seed of the ash is furnished with a wing that causes it to whirl to a distance in falling. The so-called "mountain ash" with red berries is not an ash at all, but belongs to the pear tribe.