THE SERVICE TREK] 295 



up in bunches in the fruit room. It is consumed 

 when it becomes overripe and soft, as then it looses much 

 of its astringency and takes a mellow, pasty, fruit taste, 

 not unlike that of the medlar. The wood is close grained 

 and very hard, and is used for the manufacture of screws, 

 pulleys, and other articles in which great resistance is 

 required; it is also in request by cabinet makers. 



The service tree can be propagated by sowing the 

 kernels of the fruit in February or March, but this method 

 takes a long time to produce trees of bearing capacity. 

 Propagation by cuttings or layers is difficult and generally 

 gives negative results. However, the tree throws up 

 suckers very freely, sometimes at considerable distance 

 from the stem, and these afford a most easy way of 

 propagation. Indeed the roots of the service tree are 

 remarkable for the persistence with which they continue 

 to throw up suckers, year after year, a long time after the 

 removal or destruction of the orignal tree. The suckers 

 are transplanted in winter, and seldom fail to establish 

 themselves in their new home, even if they happen to be 

 provided with only a few rootlets; and this is all the more 

 remarkable when it is remembered that cuttings and 

 layers strike root with great difficulty, and generally fail 

 altogether. 



The tree is also propagated by budding or grafting 

 on its own seedlings or suckers, and on seedlings or 

 suckers of the hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyac&ntha L ) of 

 the mountain-ash eg- rowan-tree (Pirus A ucup aria Ehrh.) 

 of the white beam-tree (Pirus Aria Ehrh.), and of the 

 wild service (Pirus torminalis Ehrhj. Budding is done 

 in March, making use of dormant buds of last year's 

 growth; or may be done from May to September, with 

 buds taken from the new twigs which have just ripened. 

 The bud is best inserted as close to the ground as possible. 

 Grafting is performed late in winter, or some time before 

 the buds begin to swell in spring, on stock which is 2 to 3 

 c. m. in thickness, and may be done either close to the 



