Pyrus 



Identification 



147 



In summer the tree is only liable to be confused with the mountain ash and its 

 allies. The bark is, however, different, being rough, scaly, and dark-coloured in the 

 true service tree, smooth and grey in Pyrus Aucuparia, etc. In Pyrus Sorbus the 

 leaflets at the base are practically symmetrical, and their serration is very acute. 

 Buds if present are the best distinction, as explained below.^ In winter Pyrus 

 Sorbus is distinguished by the following characters, shown in Plate 45 : 



Twigs: long shoots glabrous, round; leaf- scars, crescentic with 5 bundle 

 dots, set parallel to the twig on projecting cushions. Terminal buds larger, side 

 buds coming off at an acute angle ; all ovoid, densely viscid, shining, generally 

 pubescent at the tip. Bud scales few in number, greenish, sometimes reddened, 

 viscid, quite glabrous, the margin without cilia. Short shoots ringed, glabrous, 

 ending in a terminal bud. The viscid greenish buds, 5-dotted leaf-sCars, and rough 

 scaly bark, distinguish this species from other kinds of Pyrus. 



Distribution 



The Service tree is largely cultivated in central and southern Europe ; and in 

 many places, where it is recorded as wild, is really only an escape from cultivation. 

 It is met with in the forests of France which rest upon limestone ; but in the 

 north and east it does not produce fruit every year, and is doubtfully wild except 

 in the south and west. Willkomm considers it to be wild in the southern parts 

 of the Austrian empire (Dalmatia, Croatia, Banat, Carniola, and South Tyrol), in the 

 valley of the Moselle, in the Jura and Switzerland ; also in southern Europe and 

 Algeria. In France it is occasionally met with as a standard in coppiced woods. 



Mouillefert says that the tree may live to be 500 or 6cx3 years old, and that it 

 was uninjured by the severe frost of 1879-80, when the thermometer fell to 

 -25 Reaumur. He says, also, that it prefers a rich calcareous soil, but will grow 

 on sand if not too dry. (A. H.) 



Remarkable Trees 



Pyrus Sorbus is not a native of Britain, though a single specimen which grew 

 in a remote part of Wyre Forest in Worcestershire was long considered to give 

 it a claim to be introduced into the British flora. This tree was mentioned in the 

 Philosophical Transactions'^ as long ago as 1678 by Mr. Pitt, who says that he found it 

 in the preceding year as a rarity growing wild in a forest of Worcester, and identifies 

 it with the Sorbus pyriformis of L'Obelius, a tree not noticed by any preceding 

 writer as a native of England. Pitt says nothing about the size of the tree, merely 

 observing : " It resembles the Ornus or quicken tree, only the Ornus bears the flower 



' The stipules of the various species of the section Sorbus differ considerably in shape, as shown in Plate 43 ; but they 

 are usually quickly deciduous, and can only assist identification in spring. 

 ' Phil. Trans., abridged edition, ii. 434 (1809). 



