A Family History. 225 



advanced than the roses, but so far as regards the 

 flower alone, viewed as an organ for attracting insects, 

 many of the apple tribe are inferior to the true roses. 

 Here again, however, we can trace a regular gradation 

 from the small white blossoms of the may, through 

 the larger blushing pink flowers of the apple, to the 

 very expanded and brilliant crimson petals of that 

 beautiful ornamental species of pear, the Pyrus japon- 

 ica, so often trained on the sunny walls of cottages. 



The quince is another form of apple very little 

 removed from its congeners except in the fruit. 

 More different in external appearance is the moun- 

 tain-ash or rowan-tree, which few people would take 

 at first sight for a rose at all. Nevertheless, its 

 flowers exactly resemble apple-blossom, and its pretty 

 red berries are only small crabs, dwarfed, no doubt, 

 by its love for mountain heights and bleak windy 

 situations, and clustered closely together into large 

 drooping bundles. For the same reason, perhaps, 

 its leaves have been split up into numerous small 

 leaflets, which causes it to have been popularly 

 regarded as a sort of ash. In the e.xtreme north, the 

 rowan shrinks to the condition of a stunted shrub ; 

 but in deep rich soils and warmer situations it rises 

 into a pretty and graceful tree. The berries are 

 eagerly eaten by birds, for whose attraction most 



