ROSE TRIBE 259 



orders ; and the Court physician to the Queens Mary and Elizabeth, John 

 Key, better known by his Latinised name of John Caius, seems to have had 

 a high opinion of its fragrance, sickly as wc now deem it in a closed room. 

 This physician wrote in 1552 his Avork, entitled, "A boko or Counseill against 

 the Disease commonly called the Sweate, or Sweatynge Sicknesse. Made 

 by John Caius, doctour in physicke. Very necessarie for everie personne, 

 and much requisite to be had in the handes of al sortes, for their better 

 instruction, preparacion, and defense against the souddein comynge and fear- 

 full assaulting of the same disease." The chief remedies consisted in keeping 

 the patient very warm, and posset-ale, with parsley and sage put in it, was 

 one of the medicines. If the patient recovered, and found his strength 

 wasted, he was to " smell to an old swete apple ;" for, adds Dr. Caius, " there 

 is nothing more comfortable to the spirits than good and swete odours." 



Some of the exotic Crab-apple trees are among the most beautiful plants 

 of the shrubbery. The Chinese Crabs, with their rich pink blossoms ming- 

 ling with the buds of deeper red, and the Siberian Crabs, with their red 

 apj)les, are common and attractive plants, and furnish fruits well fitted for 

 preserving with sugar. In Siberia, these crab apples are used in making 

 punch. 



3. Wild Service-tree (P. tormindlis). — Leaves egg-shaped, with several 

 deep and sharp serrated lobes ; flowers in corymbs. Plant perennial. This 

 tree is much like the hawthorn, and its glossy green leaves have a similar 

 form to those of that shrub. It is a small tree, its white flowers appearing 

 in May, and the leaves being larger than those of the May-bush. The small 

 fruits are of a greenish brown colour, dotted all over. It is found here and 

 there in the woods and hedges of the south of England, and is in some 

 places called Maple Service. The author of this volume has seen it occa- 

 sionally in the Kentish woods, and has eaten of its berries, which resemble 

 the medlar in flavour, and, like that fruit, are not good till they are begin- 

 ning to decay, or, as the country people say, till they are "wilted." The 

 fruits are very plentiful on the Service, and boys gather the clusters, and, 

 tying them upon sticks, carry them into towns for sale, when they are hung 

 out of doors for a night, in order that a process of fermentation may soften 

 and fit them for eating on the morrow. These berries have a pleasant flavour, 

 and are nearly as large as the hips of the sweet-briar. In Kent, they are 

 called Chequers. Gerarde says of this tree, " In Kent it groweth in great 

 abundance, especially about Southfleet and Gravesend ;" but the woods there 

 in which our herbalist saw it are now probably all cleared, for buildings have 

 encroached on the ancient woodlands. The plant grows wild throughout 

 Europe. 



The Service-tree is said to attain sometimes the height of fifty feet. Its 

 wood is hard and close-grained, so that it is useful to turners and carvers ; 

 and for gun-stocks, and some part of carriage-wheels, the wood is preferred 

 to any other. It is very durable, and is therefore sometimes selected for the 

 timbers of houses built in exposed situations. 



4. True Service-tree (P. domMica). — Leaves pinnate, downy beneath; 

 leaflets serrated upwards ; flowers in panicles ; fruits large, and egg-shaped. 

 Plant perennial. This species, w^hich is often called Pynis sorbus, is not a 



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