UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA'S BELOVED 
MCGUFFEY ASH TAKES ROOT AGAIN

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 2 -- On Friday, Nov. 8, a sapling
of the McGuffey Ash, one of the most revered trees at the University
of Virginia, will be replanted in the garden of Pavilion IX on the
West Lawn, where the historic McGuffey Ash stood.
	The original ancient tree, named for professor William
Holmes McGuffey, author of the famous 19th century McGuffey Eclectic
Readers, had to be taken down in 1990 after a long bout with disease.
	Biology professor J. James Murray Jr., Arboretum and
Landscape Committee chairman, will lead the 1:30 p.m. tree-planting
ceremony.  In 1990 when it became necessary to take down the
original McGuffey Ash, the committee "felt strongly that it should
be perpetuated and insisted that it be done," said Murray. 
	U.Va. enlisted the expertise of the State Department of
Forestry to carry out the task. Billy Apperson, county forester with
the Department of Forestry, took branch cuttings from the still
living McGuffey Ash in the late 1980s and grafted them onto ash root
stocks that were at the time about a year old. Twenty-five grafts
were started  of which eight survive.
	According to Apperson, this was his first attempt ever with
ash and he is "really tickled that they got something out of it."
The saplings have been growing out-of-doors at the forestry
department's New Kent Forestry Center, 20 miles east of Richmond.
The sapling to be planted has grown to be "between 8 and 10 feet
tall," he said. The largest and healthiest sapling was chosen to
replace the original tree.
	The history of the McGuffey Ash is said to go back to the
earliest days of the University. Professor George Tucker, the first
professor of moral philosophy at the University, planted a number of
trees in the garden of Pavilion IX in 1826, the year after the
University opened for classes.  Tucker's successor, Dr. William
McGuffey, author of the popular reading series, felt the ash was the
best tree in the garden and removed the others to let the ash
develop.  Over the years the McGuffey Ash survived many assaults:
electric wires being run through it, sewer lines under it and
grading around it.  A story is told that Mrs. Peters, wife of
Professor William E. Peters who succeeded McGuffey in Pavilion IX,
protected the tree with her life. She sat in a chair at the trunk of
the tree when it was threatened with being cut down to lay sewer
pipes to the Lawn.  She informed the workers that if the tree were
to be cut down they would have to cut through her first.  The tree
was saved only to be struck and damaged by lightning in 1949.  It
was prevented from being declared the largest Biltmore ash in the
United States when it lost the top third to wind damage in 1968.  It
was in decline for many years until its demise in 1990.
	"It is a happy occasion when the University is able to
perpetuate a chapter of its history, which is embodied in this tree
and its association with people and events at the University," said
Mary Hughes, University Landscape Architect. "It is a wonderful way
of healing a loss so deeply felt." 
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November 1, 1996

	REPORTERS:  For more information, contact J. James Murray,
Arboretum and Landscape Committee Chairman, at (804) 982-5771.
Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804)
924-7550. 
	Xs