341 



he gives directions for preserving them in 

 two different ways : again he mentions them 

 in his 23d book, Ylth 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." 



The service-tree is still occasionally to be 

 met with in the hedge-rows in Kent, and 

 in the Wealds of Sussex, of the size of a 

 moderate oak-tree ; as also in the north of 

 England and Wales. 



The service-berry, which is an umbilicated 

 fruit, partakes of the quality of the medlar, 

 both in the green and in the ripe state. It 

 is gathered in bunches, and put into, or 

 hung on, a cleft stick of about a yard long, 

 which becomes a mass of berries : in this 

 state the fruit is sold by the country people, 

 and then hung up in a garden to receive the 

 damp air of the night, which causes it to 

 undergo a kind of putrefactive fermentation, 

 and in this soft state it is eaten, and has a 



