SERVICE-TREE.-SORB US. 



In Botany, a Genus of the Icosandria Tri- 

 gynia 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 service- 

 berry-tree is now so thinly scattered over the 

 country, that many farmers do not even know 

 its existence. 



Pliny writes of it as a fruit held in 

 estimation by the Romans. He mentions 

 four sorts, some round, resembling apples, 

 others shaped like pears, others like an egg, 

 and one variety which was only used me- 

 dicinally. He states, that Cato would have 

 service-berries preserved, (book xv. c. 21), 

 and in the 17th chapter of the same book 



