68 FAMILIAR TREES 



The Wild Service-tree (P. torminalis Ehrh.) occurs 

 somewhat locally in woods and hedgerows in the 

 southern and midland counties of England ; but not 

 in Scotland or Ireland. It is slow in growth, and 

 seldom reaches any very considerable size. The 

 bark is smooth and grey, and the twigs are stiff and 

 sub- angular, reddish to purplish-brown in colour, 

 and polished, though dotted with numerous small, 

 pale cork-warts. The buds are blunt, and almost 

 globular, polished and dry, those terminating the 

 twigs being larger than the lateral ones, the scales 

 being few in number, broad, short and green with 

 narrow brown margins. 



The leaves, which are " conduplicate " in the bud, 

 are borne on slender stalks about half the length of 

 their blades, and are of a very characteristic form, 

 though, perhaps, sufficiently like those of the Plane 

 to justify the comparison made by such an ancient 

 and uncritical observer as Pliny. The blade is from 

 two and a half to four and a half inches long, ovate- 

 deltoid in general outline, very slightly heart-shaped 

 at the base, and divided into seven, or sometimes 

 five, triangular lobes. The lobing extends from a 

 third to a half of the distance from the periphery to 

 the midrib, and the lobes and their veins the 

 secondary ribs of the leaf as a whole are arranged 

 pinnately, though the basal secondary ribs, and con- 

 sequently the basal pair of lobes, diverge at a larger 

 angle from the main rachis than the rest, thus giving 

 the leaf a pseudo-palmate appearance. The lobes 

 are sharply pointed, and the margins are irregularly 

 serrate. The leaf-blade is firm and green on both 



