40 TREES 



In the gravel walk between the East Gate and the Fountain 

 grows a magnificent specimen of the Service Tree, Pyrus 

 sorbus, said to have been planted from the fruit of the Wyre 

 Forest tree by Professor Sibthorp (1784-95) and now 50 ft. 

 high, girth 5 ft. 4 in., the largest but one in this country, but, 

 like the White Beam, Pyrus aria, near by, sadly overshadowed 

 by the large Copper Beech (fig. p. 98), which, though the 

 largest timber tree in the Garden, girth 12 ft. 6 in., is not 

 worthy of the area it covers, and should be sawn back with 

 unsparing hand. As in many other large examples of its kind, 

 the copper colour is less well pronounced than in younger trees. 

 A Beech of the purple variety may be seen in Wadham Garden. 



The next tree is a specimen of the Glastonbury Thorn, 

 Crataegus oxyacantha, the descendant of the famous thorn 

 said to have grown from the walking-staff cut from the thorn 

 used for crowning our Saviour, which Joseph of Arimathea 

 stuck into the ground at Glastonbury, when it immediately 

 put forth leaves and flowers ! It sent out its blossoms on 

 Christmas Day each year, refusing in 1733 to accommodate 

 itself to the new style, and with conservative persistence 

 blossomed on January 5. The original thorn was destroyed 

 by Puritan fanatics one of whom "was wel served for his 

 blind zeale, who, going to cut doune an ancient white Hau- 

 thorne-tree, which, because she budded before others, might 

 be an occasion of Superstition, had some of the prickles flew 

 into his eye and made him Monocular " (James Howel, in 

 " Dodona's Grove ") 



The Common Buckthorn, Rhamnus catharticus, used for- 

 merly to be valued for its bluish-black berries which yield a 

 nauseous and violent purge, and also the Sap Green pigment 

 of painters. A preparation of the bark of an allied 

 N. American species, R. purshiana, is used in .medicine under 

 the name of Cascara Sagrada. The leaves of our tree are 

 highly appreciated by green fly and form a source of infection 

 to other plants. 



