Pyrus 



*579 



Scandinavia and Russia. In Russia, it is widely spread in the forests of the plains, 

 but does not occur south of a line passing through Orenburg, Tambof, Voronej, 

 Kursk, and Podolia. In Germany, it grows on all soils, forming part of both the 

 broad-leaved and coniferous forests, and often ascends to timber line, attaining an 

 altitude of 4000 to 5000 feet. It reaches still higher elevations in the Carpathians 

 and the mountainous districts of the Balkan states. In France it is more 

 common in hilly and mountainous regions, often becoming a bush on elevated 

 precipices ; but occurs in a few forests in the plains of the north. In the British Isles 

 it is probably indigenous only in mountainous and hilly districts, though it is seen 

 as a rare tree in woods as far south as the Isle of Wight. It ascends in the 

 Highlands to about 2600 feet. This species has been found in the fossil state, 1 in 

 neolithic deposits at Caerwys, Flintshire. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



Though the mountain ash in England is usually not over thirty or forty feet 

 high, yet it has a tree-like rather than a bushy habit, and is so beautiful for its 

 fruit and for the elegance and autumnal colours of its foliage, that it should be 

 planted on the edges of all copses, and in hedges and pleasure grounds. No native 

 tree surpasses it in the autumn when laden with its red berries, and though 

 birds are so fond of these that they are mostly eaten before winter, yet where 

 the tree is abundant, it is one of the most beautiful features of the scenery. To 

 see its foliage at its best, one must however, go to more northern regions such as 

 Norway, where I have seen the hillsides absolutely scarlet with it in the first week 

 of October, mixed with the silver bark and golden leaves of the birch and aspen. 



It is so easy to raise from seed, which should be sown when ripe, or treated like 

 haws, and so indifferent as to soil and situation that it may be planted almost any- 

 where, but usually grows best in mountainous and northern regions. 



The finest trees which I have seen are at Walcot, Shropshire, where in 1905 I 

 measured a well-shaped specimen 56 ft. by 6\ ft. with a clean bole 20 ft. long, and 

 at Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, where in 1907 I saw a tree 56 ft. by 5 ft., the trunk of 

 which was covered by large burrs. Though Loudon says that the largest trees of 

 this species are in the West Highlands, yet I have never seen or heard of any 

 equal to those mentioned above. 



In Norway where it is almost everywhere a common tree, and is called Rogn, 

 the bark is the favourite winter food of the elk, and the fruits are very much 

 liked by bears, so that in districts where these animals are found the tree 

 becomes comparatively scarce. The largest that I have seen were rarely 30 to 

 40 ft., though Schubeler mentions one near Christiania 48 ft. high. He illustrates 2 

 a good wild tree at Akureyri, in Iceland, which shows that even in this inhospitable 

 and treeless land the species thrives well. 



No tree is more commonly seen as an epiphyte in this country than the 

 mountain ash, whose berries are often dropped by birds on the decaying branches 



1 Cf. C. Reid, Origin British Flora, 119 (1899). 2 Vaextlivet i Norge, 92, fig. 42 (1879). 



