SERVICE TREE. 351 



chiefly in strong soils ; it grows forty or fifty feet high, 

 with a large trunk, spreading at the top into a broad 

 head. The blossom is white, and shaped like that of 

 the pear-tree, but smaller. The fruit is shaped like the 

 common haw, but is much larger ; it ripens in autumn, 

 and if kept till it is brown and soft has an agreeable 

 flavour. It is sold in the London markets. 



The wood is hard, and useful for many purposes. 



Like many other plants, their place or name is not 

 determined by botanists ; some placing one or other of 

 these trees in the genus Pyrus, some in the genus 

 Crataegus ; and others, as Allioni, place the first in the 

 genus Mespilus. The Linnaean botanists do not agree 

 even in what order of the class Icosandria they are to be 

 ranked; some placing one in Icosandria Digynia, the 

 other in Icosandria Pentagynia : others place both in 

 Icosandria Pentagynia. The vacillation thus exhibited 

 by the botanists of the artificial Linnaean school as to the 

 proper place of these plants is an admirable example of 

 the superior merit of the Natural System ; as the bo- 

 tanists of that school have constantly placed them in the 

 family of the Pomaceae. 



