80 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ROSACE®, 
across, subglobose or slightly pyriform, and bright red, with thin acid flesh, a thick rather woody endo- 
carp, and light chestnut-colored seeds rounded at the apex, acute at the base, more or less flattened by 
mutual pressure, and one eighth of an inch long. It ripens late in the autumn, and, unless eaten by 
birds, remains on the tree until the end of winter, when it separates from the stems, which often remain 
on the branches until the leaf-buds open in the spring. 
Pyrus Americana is distributed from Newfoundland to Manitoba,’ and extends southward through 
the maritime provinces of Canada, Quebec, and Ontario, the elevated portions of the northeastern United 
States, the region of the Great Lakes, and the high mountain ranges of Virginia and North Carolina. 
It is abundant in all the eastern provinces of Canada, where it grows in rich rather moist soil along the 
borders of swamps and on rocky hillsides, and probably attains its largest size on the northern shores 
of Lakes Huron and Superior; in the United States, except in northern New England, it is more often 
a shrub than a tree, growing usually on the Alleghany Mountains in the form of a low bush with 
narrower foliage and smaller fruit than the tree bears at the north2 
The wood of Pyrus Americana is close-grained, but light, soft, and weak; it is pale brown, with 
pale lighter colored sapwood composed of fifteen to twenty layers of annual growth, and contains 
numerous obscure medullary rays. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.5451, a cubic 
foot weighing 33.97 pounds. 
The fruit of the American Mountain Ash is as astringent as that of the Old World species, 
contains the same principles, and can be used for the same purposes; in the United States it is some- 
times employed domestically in infusions and decoctions,? and in homeopathic remedies.* 
Pyrus Americana was first distinguished by Humphrey Marshall, the Pennsylvania botanist, who 
described it in his Arbustum Americanum in 1785,5 although it is said to have been introduced into 
English gardens three years earlier.’ It is sometimes planted in Canada and in the northern United 
States in the neighborhood of houses on account of the beauty of its fruit. This, however, is smaller 
and less highly colored than that of the second North American and of the European species. 
» Brunet, Cat. Vég. Lig. Can. 26.— Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. Sorbus riparia, Rafinesque, New Fi. iii. 15. 
1879-80, 54°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. Pl. i. 146. ® Rafinesque, Med. Fi. ii. 265. — Stillé & Maisch, Nat. Dispens. 
? Pyrus Americana, var. microcarpa, Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. ed. 2, 1333. 
i, 472. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 74. * Millspaugh, Am. Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Remedies, i. 56, t. 56. 
Sorbus aucuparia, var. a., Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 290. 5 John Josselyn includes in his list of plants mentioned in Vew 
Sorbus microcarpa, Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 341.— Poiret, Lam. England’s Rarities the “ Quick Beam or Wild Ash.” This has been 
Dict. Suppl. v. 164.— Elliott, Sk. i. 555.—Spach, Hist. Vég. ii. supposed to be the American Mountain Ash (see ed. Tuckerman, 
95. — Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. iii. 138. 98), and, although Josselyn probably never visited the part of 
Pyrus microcarpa, Sprengel, Syst. ii. 511.— De Candolle, Prodr. New England where this tree grows naturally, he may well have 
ii, 636. — Don, Gen. Syst. ii. 648.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 921.— learned of its existence from the Indians, who doubtless made use 
Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 71. of the fruit. 
Sorbus Americana, var. microcarpa, Wenzig, Linnea, xxxviii. 73. 6 Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 920, t. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
Puate CLXXI. Pyrus Americana. Prats CLXXII. Pyrvus Americana, 
1. A flowering branch, natural size. 1. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
2. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 2. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
3. An ovary divided transversely, enlarged. 3. Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
4. Portion of a young branch showing stipules, natural size. 4. Vertical section of a seed, enlarged. 
5. An embryo, much magnified. 
6. A winter-bud, natural size. 
