146 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



PYRUS SORBUS, True Service' 



Pyrus Sorbus, Gaertner,* Z> Fruct. ii. 43, t. 87 (1791), Lxjudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 921 (1838). 

 Pyrus domestica, Ehrhart,^ " Plantag," 20, ex Beitrage zur Naturkunde, vi. 95 (1791); Smith, Eng. 



Bot. t. 550 (1796). 

 Sorbus domestica, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 477 (1753). 

 C<mnus domestica, Spach, Hist. Vig. Phan. ii. 97 (1834). 



A tree, attaining a height of 60 to 80 feet. Bark, like that of the common pear, 

 dark brown, Assuring longitudinally, and scaling off in narrow, rectangular plates. 

 Leaves pinnate : 6 to 9 pairs of sessile leaflets and a terminal stalked leaflet. Leaflets 

 linear oblong, almost equal-sided at the base, and acute at the apex, serrate with 

 acuminate teeth, except towards the base where they are entire ; dull green above, 

 paler below, glabrous on both surfaces when mature, some pubescence often, however, 

 remaining underneath. Flowers white, in short pubescent corymbs ; styles 5, 

 united at the base and woolly in their whole length. Fruit either pear- or apple- 

 shaped, generally green, tinted with red on one side, 5-celled, about an inch in 

 diameter. 



The fruit apparently varies much in flavour, but in good varieties is agreeable 

 though astringent. The French proverb, lis ne mangent que les cormes, applied to 

 destitute persons, would indicate that the fruit was poor ; and this is doubtless often 

 the case. In parts of France a perry is made from them, and they are also 

 preserved dry like prunes. At Vevay * in Switzerland there are avenues planted, 

 consisting of service trees of various kinds ; and the brilliancy of the fruit and of 

 the hues of the foliage in October give a very fine effect. 



Varieties 



Two.well-marked forms occur, one mali/ormis,'^'Vi{th apple-shaped fruit, the other 

 pyriformis,^ with pear-shaped fruit. There would seem, however, to be in France, 

 though little known to planters in general, varieties which produce fruit of a superior 

 kind. Two of these are strongly recommended by a writer in the Journal of the 

 French National Horticultural Society : '' one discovered on the estate of M. Dufresne, 

 near Bordeaux, which has large pyriform fruits of a carmine yellow, produced in large 

 bunches and excellent in flavour, as soon as they commence to mellow ; the other 

 was also found growing wild in woods belonging to M. Lafitte at Agen, which has 

 fruit of a bright pink colour. 



' Service is commonly deriveo from the Latin cerevisia, a drink said to have been formerly made of berries of the 

 different species of Sorbus, or to have been flavoured with their leaves. C. Woolley Dod contro/erts this view in Card. Chnm. 

 1890, vii. 87, and holds that service is simply a corruption of sorbus, and that ceremsia, a drink, according to Pliny, made of 

 cereal grain in Gaul, was ordinary malt ale. 



' Gaertner's and Ehrhart's names were both published in the same year. Gaertner's preface antedates that of Ehrhart 

 by a few days. Nothing is known for certain of the pamphlet " Plantag " cited by Ehrhart. Which name has priority of 

 publication is uncertain. 



' Wtiocb and Forests, July 16, 1884. * Loddiges, CcUalogue, ex Loudon, loc. cit, 



' Quoted in Garden, 1886, xxx. 89. 



