Ash (Fraxĭnus), a genus of deciduous trees belonging to the nat. ord. Oleaceæ, having imperfect flowers and a seed-vessel prolonged into a thin wing at the apex (called a samara). There are a good many species, chiefly indigenous to North America. The common ash (F. excelsior), the only species indigenous to Central and Northern Europe, has a smooth bark, and grows tall and rather slender. The branches are flattened; the leaves have five pairs of pinnæ, terminated by an odd one, dark-green in colour; lanceolate, with serrated edges. The flowers are produced in loose spikes from the sides of the branches, and are succeeded by flat seeds which ripen in autumn. It is one of the most useful of British trees on account of the excellence of its hard tough wood and the rapidity of its growth, but often suffers greatly from a canker caused by the fungus Nectria ditissima. There are many varieties of it, as the weeping-ash, the curled-leaved ash, the entire-leaved ash, &c. The flowering or manna ash (F. Ornus), by some placed in a distinct genus (Ornus), is a native of the south of Europe and Palestine. It yields the substance called manna, which is obtained by making incisions in the bark, when the juice exudes and hardens. Among American species are the white ash (F. americana), with lighter bark and leaves; the red or black ash (F. pubescens), with a brown bark; the black ash (F. sambucifolia), the blue ash, the green ash, &c. They are all valuable trees. The mountain-ash or rowan belongs to a different order.
1, Hermaphrodite flower. 2, Anthers of male flower.
Ash, or Ashes, the incombustible residue of organic bodies (animal or vegetable) remaining after combustion; in common usage, any incombustible residue of bodies used as fuel; as a commercial term, the word generally means the ashes of vegetable substances, from which are extracted the alkaline matters called potash, pearl-ash, kelp, barilla, &c.
Ashan´go, a region in the interior of Southern Africa between lat. 1° and 2° S., and between the Ogowe and the Lower Congo, a mountainous country in the French territory. The inhabitants belong to the Bantu stock, and among them are a dwarfish people, the Obongo, said to be about 4½ feet high at most.
Ashanti´, a British territory in West Africa belonging to the Gold Coast Colony, of which it forms a large inland portion, under a chief commissioner; area about 20,000 sq. miles. It is in great part hilly, well-watered, and covered with dense tropical vegetation, and rich forests with excellent timber trees. The country round the towns, however, is carefully cultivated. The crops are chiefly rice, maize, millet, sugar-cane,
cocoa, and yams, the last forming the staple vegetable food of the natives. Rubber is also a product. The domestic animals are cows, horses of small size, goats, and a species of hairy sheep. The wild animals include the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, hippopotamus, &c. Birds are numerous, and crocodiles and other reptiles abound. Gold is abundant, and mining concessions are now successfully worked. The Ashantis make excellent cotton and silk cloths, articles in gold and other metals, earthenware, leather, &c. Ashanti used to form a kingdom ruled despotically, human sacrifices being very common. It is now under British administration, and attention is given to education, sanitation, agriculture, means of communication, &c. There are Government schools at Coomassie and Sunyani and a number of missionary schools. The chief town is Coomassie (or Kumassi), now reached by a railway from the coast (length 168 miles); its population is 24,000. The British first came in contact with the Ashantis in 1807, and hostilities continued off and on till 1826, when they were driven from the sea-coast. Immediately after the transfer of the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast to Britain in 1872—when the entire coast remained in British hands—the Ashantis reclaimed the sovereignty of the tribes round the settlement of Elmina. This brought on a war, leading to a British expedition in 1874, in which Coomassie was captured. In 1896 the country became a British protectorate. In 1901 a rebellion had to be put down, and next year Ashanti was fully annexed. Pop. 287,814 (1911).—Cf. R. A. Freeman, Travels and Life in Ashantee and Jaman.
Ash´bourne, a town of England, in Derbyshire, 12 miles N.W. of Derby, with manufactures of cottons and lace. Pop. 4039.
Ash´burton, a town in Devonshire, England, 16 miles S.W. of Exeter, a parliamentary borough till 1868, and till 1918 giving name to a parliamentary division. Pop. (1921), 2362.
Ash´burton, Alexander Baring, Lord, a British statesman and financier, born 1774, died 1848. A younger son of Sir Francis Baring, he was bred to commercial pursuits, which for some years kept him in the United States and Canada, and in 1810 he became head of the great firm of Baring Brothers & Co. He sat in Parliament from 1806 to 1835, when he was raised to the peerage, after being a member of Peel's Government (1834-5).