THE APPLE FAMILY. 189 



teries, are varieties of the Oxyacdntha. A bough of the first-named often vindi- 

 cates the original nature, by producing tchite flowers, making it appear as if a 

 piece of the common wild May had been thrown among the branches. The 

 anthers of the hawthorn are pink when the flower expands, but subsequently 

 change to black. 



2. Wild Apple — [Pyrus Mdlus.) 



Hedges and thickets, frequent, especially about Cheadle and Baguley. 



Fl. April, May. 



E. B. iii. 179. 



This is the origin of our garden apples, all of which are varieties that have 

 sprung up under cultivation. 



3. Mountain Ash — [Pyrus Aucupdria.) 



In woods, and on banks of streams and rivers, where it can lean 

 over the water, loving especially the rocky sides of little cascades. 

 Undoubtedly wild at Alderley, on the top of Werneth Lowe, and at 

 Seal-bark, Greenfield, in a place called, from its abundance, the 

 " Wicken-hole." Fl. May, June. 



E. B. v. 337. 



Planted everywhere for ornamental pui^joses, few trees exhibit two such 

 strikingly difierent aspects of beauty as the mountain-ash, viewed in the spiing 

 and in the autumn. In May ani June it is green, light, and graceful, and loaded 

 with cream-coloured bloom, the exuberant joy of its youth ; then for a time it is 

 unattractive, and we almost forget it, but in September it again becomes con- 

 spicuous, and with a magnificence of fruitage, first of a deep orange colour, and 

 when ripe, of a rich vermihon, that attracts the most indifferent and incurious. 



" The mountain ash 

 No eye can overlook, when 'mid a grove 

 Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head, 

 Decked with autumnal berries, that outshine 

 Spring's richest blossoms." 



Several fine specimens of this handsome tree stand by the approach to Lyme 

 Park, on the right-hand side. 



The garden species of the Pomaceee, after the apple, the pear, the quince (not 

 rare in good gardens in Cheshire), and the medlar, (E. B. xxii. 1523.) which 

 frequently occurs about Bowdon and Baguley, and brings its fruit to perfection 

 every year, are limited to ornamental kinds, and nearly all are exceedingly com- 

 mon. The Pyrus Japonica, usually trained against walls, opens its large crimson 

 or blush-coloured corollas as early as March ; the Pyrus Aria, or white-beam, 

 (E. B. xxvi. 1858.) and the Pyrus hybrida, (E. B. xxxiii. 2331.) are handsome 

 shrubbery and plantation trees, with feather-veined leaves, broad, oval, and un- 



