1884.J BEAUTIES OF BBITISH TREES. 257 



BEA UTIES OF BRITISH TREES. 



jHE EO WAIST {Pyrus aumparia) is the most graceful tree of 

 the genus to which it belongs. Like the Pear and the Apple, 

 a member of the liosaceous genus Pyrv.s, characterised by its 

 apple-like fruits, or ' pomes,' with a cartilaginous * core ' or 

 ' endocarp,' the Eowan, together with the White Beam and the 

 Services, forms the sub-genus Sorbas, distinguished by having their 

 small white flowers in branched clusters, technically known as 

 ' cymes,' which are followed by small fruits containing but few seeds. 

 The small trees forming this group are rather closely allied to one 

 another, the Rowan, indeed, being sometimes termed the ' Fowlers' 

 Service-tree,' though perhaps its best-known name is now the some- 

 what misleading one of ' Mountain Ash.' Its name of Eowan has, 

 somewhat improbably, been derived from the roan colour of the bark, 

 but there can be little doubt that it is to this grey and smooth 

 rind, its graceful, ascending branches and pinnate leaves, that it owes 

 the name of Ash. Even its clusters of white blossoms resemble at a 

 distance those of Fraxinus ornvs, the Flowering or Manna Ash, but 

 the true Ash trees have no relationship to these Eosaceous plants. 

 Whilst the White Beam and the Wild Service are also common in 

 rocky, hilly, or even mountainous situations, it is especially the Eowan 

 that rejoices in bleak rocky crags, overhanging the gills and becks of 

 our mountains. It grows at an altitude of 2,600 feet in the Scotch 

 Highlands, and so well deserves the prefix ' Mountain ' to its name. 

 Having a wan-hued bark and lurid fruit, and growing in wild woodland 

 and moor, it seems to have been formerly used by witches in divination, 

 and its name ' Eowan ' is said to be connected with the Gothic word 

 'run,' a whisper, a mystery, divination, or a magic letter, from ' runen, 

 to know. Homccopathy is a great deal older than the time of 

 Hahnemann, so that the Mountain Ash became of high repute as a 

 protection against witchcraft, as witness the proverb — 



' Eowan tree and red thread 

 Put the witches to their speed.' 



It was, therefore, planted near cow-houses and stables ; perhaps 

 because the weird sisters were more given to attack the cattle than 

 their owners, or, perliaps, as in the case of the House-leek planted on 

 similar buildings as a protection from lightning, because the frugal 

 farmer thought more of the safety of his stock than of that of his 

 family. 



The Mountain Ash grows from ten to thirty feet high, with alternate 



