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SERVICE-TREE.-.SORBUS. 



Natural order, Pomacea. A genus of the Icosandria 

 Trigynia class. 



THIS fruit, which is a native of England, is now as 

 little known, and as rare in the London market, as the 

 fruits of the most distant parts of the world ; and the 

 serviceberry-tree is now so thinly scattered over the 

 country, that many farmers are ignorant of its existence. 



It is difficult to ascertain whether the English name is 

 a corruption of the Italian Sorbe, the French Sorbes, or 

 the Spanish Servas, or like them is derived from the 

 Latin Sorbus, a sorbendo, quia caro matura sorbetur ; the 

 pulp being supped or sucked in. 



Pliny writes of it as a fruit held in esteem by the Ro- 

 mans. He mentions four sorts, some round, resembling 

 apples, others shaped like pears, others like an egg, and 

 one variety which was only used medicinally. He states, 

 that Gato would have service-berries preserved, (book xv. 

 c. 21), and in the 17th chapter of the same book he gives 

 directions for preserving them in two different ways : 

 again he mentions them in his 23d book, 17th chap, and 

 says, their medicinal virtues are the same as those of the 

 medlar. 



Gerard describes two kinds, and says, " they are found 

 in woods and groves in most places of England. There 

 be many small trees thereof, in a little wood a mile 

 beyond Islington: in Kent it groweth in great abun- 

 dance, especially about Southfleete and Gravesend." 



