XXVII. 2. THE AMERICAN MOUNTAIN ASH. 439 



in 1836, the catalogue and the gardens of the London Horticul- 

 tural Society, contained upwards of 1400 distinct sorts, (Lou- 

 do?i, p. 895,) and new ones are every year added. 



The fruit is not only delicious and wholesome to man, either 

 unprepared, or in the numerous forms into which it is reduced 

 by the culinary art, hut it forms a very valuable and nutritious 

 article of food to almost all quadrupeds. 



The wood of the apple tree is of a reddish or brownish color, 

 smooth, fine-grained, and hard, but rather light. It is much 

 used by the turner, and often made into walking-sticks. It has 

 been found very durable when used as cogs of wheels. On ac- 

 count of its smoothness and hardness, it is used to make shuttles 

 and reeds for weaving. 



The apple tree is often found growing in the forest, rising to 

 a far greater height than when in the orchard. Stocks have 

 been pointed out to me more than seventy feet high. 



In the southern country, a small native apple tree is found, 

 the Pyrns corondria, growing rarely to the height of twenty 

 feet, bearing large, fragrant, rose-colored flowers, succeeded by 

 small fruit. In the Middle States occurs another, P. angusti- 

 fblia, with leaves and fruit smaller. 



The American Mountain Ash. P. Americana. De Candolle. 



The mountain ash is found growing abundantly about Wa- 

 chusett, and in several other mountainous situations in Massa- 

 chusetts, and also in low, cold, moist plains in Maine. It often 

 grows in bunches. The trunk rarely erect, but ascending, and 

 from fifteen to twenty-five feet high. Its branches are few, sol- 

 itary, and making a sharp angle with the stem. The bark is 

 of a bright bottle green on the new shoots, growing darker on 

 the older. The leaves are in tufts on the ends of the branches, 

 pinnate, usually of seven pairs of leaflets and an odd one. The 

 petiole is dark red. The leaflets are oblong-lanceolate, unequal 

 at base, rounded or cordate on the lower, acute on the upper 

 side, equally and deeply serrated, with numerous parallel nerves. 

 The color is a soft green, paler beneath. The flowers, which 

 expand early in June, are white ; the fruit, which, like that of 



