636 



THE NATURE BOOK 



is grey in colour, is smootli at first, 

 and marked \\"ith transverse lines as 

 that of the Wild Cherry. Later it be- 

 comes thickened and furrowed. The 

 twigs are short, slightly velvety, grey 

 to brown. The buds are large, pointed. 



dicated. The fruit clusters are brilliant 

 with a colour all their own, a vermilion 

 shade of red, which gives to this tree 

 from late summer onwards, so long as the 

 birds will permit, its most distinctive 

 character. Blackbirds and thrushes 



LEAVES OF (1) WILD SERVICE. (2) HAWTHORN, (3) WILD APPLE 



pressed up against the twig, distinctly 

 velvety, purplish black or grey. Should 

 doubt arise with respect to tliis tree, it 

 may be distinguished from the Ash by 

 the spiral arrangement of its buds. The 

 leaf-scar is long and narrow, showing five 

 leaf-traces. 



The leaves are compound like tliose of 

 the Ash. It is from this fact that this tree 

 has acquired the somewhat misleading 

 name of Mountain AsIl Rowan and Ash 

 are not related. Each leaf consists of 

 from five to nine ])airs of leaflets, with a 

 terminal one. The margins of these are 

 toothed like a saw. The flowers are 

 Hawthorn-like, but of smaller size in- 

 dividually, and borne as previously in- 



s\\'allow down the fruit in 

 wholesale fashion, so ensur- 

 ing for its contained seeds 

 an abundant and wide 

 dispersal. 



THE HAWTHORN, OR 

 WHITE THORN 



On ever}^ side is the 

 Hawthoj-n, in the season 

 of its blossoming, extend- 

 ing along the borders of 

 the fields like rolling 

 masses of sea-foam ; scat- 

 tered over tlie commons 

 and up the hill slopes in 

 mounds and wreaths ; possessing all the 

 land with the wonder, all the air with 

 the fragrance, of the " May." 



Growing as a small tree it presents a 

 rounded crown, with great crowd and 

 entanglement of branch and twig, which, 

 through the summer, supports close density 

 of shadowing foliage, beloved of many 

 wild birds for the hiding of their nests. 

 The dull grey bark of its often fluted 

 main stem is roughened into closely set 

 furro\\s. The twigs, which are dull brown, 

 or silvery grey, vary from long shoots 

 with buds and leaves apart, to short 

 shoots with buds placed closely, and 

 leaves gathered into tufts. These short 

 shoots end in sharp thorns. Thorns are 



