SOR 



SOR 



All the other sorts are tender, and require the 

 hot-house or stove. They are increased by 

 sowing the seed in the early spring, in pots filled 

 with fine mellow light mould, and plunged in 

 the hot-bed under glasses, or in the bark-bed. 

 When the plants have advanced a little in 

 growth, they should be removed into separate 

 pots, filled with soft loamy mould, being well 

 watered and replunged in the bark-bed till fresh 

 rooted ; being afterwards managed as other exotic 

 stove plants, with but little water. They like- 

 wise sometimes succeed by layers and cuttings, 

 treated in the same manner. 



The first sorts afford variety in the borders 

 and among potted plants, and the iattcr in stove 

 collections. 



SORB TREE. See Sorbus Domestica. 



SORBUS, a genus containing plants of the 

 ornamental tree kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Icosandria 

 Trigynia, and ranks in the natural order of Po- 

 macece. 



The characters are : that the calvx is a one- 

 leafed perianth, concave-spreading, five-cleft, 

 permanent : the corolla has five petals, roundish, 

 concave, inserted into the calyx : the stamina 

 have twenty awl-shaped filaments, inserted h-.to 

 the calyx : anthers roundish : the pistillum is an 

 inferior germ: styles three, filiform, erect: 

 stigmas headed : the pericarpium is a soft globu- 

 lar berry, umbilicate: the seeds three, somewhat 

 oblong, distinct, cartilaginous. 



The species cultivated are: 1. S. ava/paria, 

 Mountain Service, Mountain Ash, Quicken 

 Tree, Roan Tree ; 2. S. domestica, True Service 

 or Sorb ; 3. S. hylr'ida, Bastard Service, or 

 Mountain Ash. 



The first is an elegant tree, of slow growth ; 

 the wood tough and close-grained, not very 

 hard ; the hark smooth and erav ; the young 

 branches purplish brown : the leaves unequally 

 pinnate : leaflets (five, six, seven or eight pairs) 

 serrate except at the base, smooth above, and 

 nearly so beneath, except a few fine scattered 

 hairs ; their under side is also glaucous : they 

 are sessile, lanceolate ; the middle ones longest, 

 and the odd one is rather oblong-ovate : the 

 midrib is channelled, and often purple. And, 

 according to Miller, the leaves on the young 

 trees in the' spring are hoary Oil their under side, 

 hut about midsummer the hoar mess goes off, 

 and those upon the older branches have very 

 little at any season : the flowers are in large, 

 terminating, pubescent corymbs, very much 

 branched : the fruit bright red or scarlet when 

 ripe, nearly round, the size of a lar^e pea, 

 juicy, with an astringency. It is a native of the 

 colder parts of Europe, &c. 



The leaves make a pretty variety when mixed 



with other trees in plantati»ns : it is also hand- 

 some when in flower, and in the autumn, when in 

 fruit; but the blackbirds and thrushes are so fond 

 of it, that they devour it before it is well ripe. 



The second species is a tree of a middling 

 size, not unlike the first, of verv slow growth, 

 not flowering till it arrives at a great age; the 

 wood is very hard : the leaves alternate, com- 

 posed of from six or seven to ninepairs of op- 

 posite, sessile, ovate or oblorg, equal leaflets, 

 with a terminating one of the same size ; ail en- 

 tire at the base, serrate from about half way to 

 the end, smooth above, downy btneath, but 

 that downiness goes off towards autumn: the 

 flowers in terminating panicles, subcorymbed, 

 tomentose : the fruit pear-shaped, reddish and 

 spotted, extremely austere, and not eatable till 

 it is quite mellowed by frost or time, when it 

 becomes brown and very soft. It is a native of 

 the warmer parts of Europe, flowering in May. 



There are varieties in the fruit: as with apple 

 shaped fruit ; with pear-shaped fruit ; with oval 

 fruit; with turbinated fruit; and with compressed 

 fruit. 



The third is a middle-sized tree : the leaves 

 lobed in front, pinnate at the base, serrate, 

 wiihoul any stipules, smooth above, white-to- 

 mentose beneath : the corymbs terminating, 

 tomentose, many-flowered : the flowers white : 

 the styles three, or sometimes two only : the 

 fruit as in the first, but a little larger. 



Culture. — These plants are all capable of being 

 raised from se\;d, and also by layers; but the first 

 is the best method. 



The seeds, when well ripened in the autumn, 

 should be sown on small beds of light fine 

 ground in the nursery, either in drills or over the 

 surface, covering them in to the depth of about an 

 inch. When the plants rise in the following or 

 second spring, they should be kept clear from 

 weeds, and when of a year's growth, be planted 

 out in nursery-rows, to remain till of a proper 

 size for planting oat. 



The second sort is sometimes sown in large 

 pots and forwarded in a hot-bed, so as to be 

 sooner fit lor planting out in nursery-rows. 



In the layer method, some of the best trees 

 should be cut down near to the ground while 

 young, by which young shoots will be sent off, 

 which should be laid down in the usual way in 

 the autumn or spring season, where they readily 

 strike root, and become proper for being planted 

 out in nurserv-rows in one year. In order to 

 continue any particular variety, this method 

 must constantly be adopted. 



In cultivating the second sort for the purpose 

 of fruit, the best method is by grafting or bud- 

 ding upon stocks of any of the sorts raised as 

 above, or upon pear stocks- 



