292 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



for after that it can no longer keep pace with the further 

 development of most other species of forest trees. On 

 exposed hill-sides it often, along with the birch, does good 

 service as a nurse, but it is then sometimes just as difficult 

 to be got rid of when no longer required, since it is also 

 gifted with strong reproductive power, particularly in respect 

 to the production of stoles or root-suckers. 



One can hardly speak of any particular sylvicultural treat- 

 ment as being accorded to the rowan tree. It is the Israelite 

 among our forest trees, thriving on soils of all descriptions 

 good, bad, and indifferent, from the sea-level upwards to 

 the limits of sylvan vegetation along with the mountain pine 

 and the mountain alder (Alnus viridis), asserting itself 

 wherever there is the slightest foothold on crags, rocks, ruins, 

 or even where moss and fallen leaves have collected in the 

 forks of trees, never receiving any material encouragement, 

 but merely allowed occasionally to associate with other 

 species for a certain time, then to be invariably removed 

 during the operations of weeding and clearing, or later on 

 of thinning out, always being cut down and operated 

 against, but always making its re-appearance wherever it has 

 a chance of maintaining itself. 



Even on raw exposed situations its cultivation in forests 

 is not likely to be remunerative ; but for the adornment of 

 mountain roads, and for many similar aesthetic purposes, it 

 possesses qualities unsurpassed by any other tree, and the 

 ease with which it can be transplanted, either as seedling or 

 stole, pleads for a little more being done for its distribution. 



Closely allied to the mountain ash is the true Service Tree 

 (Pyrus torminalis, Ehrh. = Sorbus torminalis, L.) with its 

 fine-grained wood, which is occasionally to be found in dry 

 situations along with the beech on limy soils, but is nowhere 

 of anything like frequent occurrence. It also is characterised 

 by beauty of foliage, especially during autumn, when its 



