THE SERVICETREE 69 



surfaces when fully developed, and its upper surface 

 is then shining, the network of finer veins being 

 distinctly visible ; but, when young, the leaves are 

 downy, the under- surface being then bluish or grey. 

 In autumn the leaves turn to a yellowish-brown. 



The flowers appear, in April or May, in large flat 

 clusters with downy stalks, and are individually about 

 half an inch across. They are thus rather larger than 

 those of the Mountain Ash, and they also gain in 

 beauty by the greater looseness of their grouping in 

 the often-branched corymbs which they form. Their 

 styles vary in number from two to five, and are 

 smooth, whilst the number of chambers in the fruit, 

 of course, corresponds. The fruit itself is about a 

 third of an inch across, or a little larger than a 

 Hawthorn berry. It may be pear-shaped or more 

 globose, but is generally somewhat oval. It is green, 

 much dotted or chequered with brown, and is at first 

 very hard and dry, but when " bletted " by frost is 

 agreeably acid and wholesome. Ray even expressed 

 a preference for them over those of the True Service 

 (P. domestica). In some country markets these 

 " chequer-berries " are regularly sold in November. 

 Half a century ago Dr. Bromfield, indeed, recorded 

 that they were offered for sale at Ryde, in the Isle of 

 Wight, as " Sorbus-berries." Aubrey, in his " Natural 

 History of Wiltshire," writes : " Dr. Gale tells me that 

 Sorbiodunum, now Old Sarum, has its denomination 

 from sorbes, but the. ground below the castle is all 

 turned to arable " ; and many other references suggest 

 that this tree was once far more frequent, before our 

 primeval woodlands had given way on the one hand 



