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Forests and Trees 



greatest size in Oregon, where it may be more than thirty feet 

 high. Usually it is not more than a shrub in Canada. 



The fruit is a little apple, about half an inch or less in diameter, 

 but differs from most apples by not being depressed at the 

 base. It is red or yellow, sour to the taste and edible, although 

 the fleshy part is small compared with the size of the seeds. 

 'I The wood is firm and hard and is sometimes used for mallets 

 or handles. 



2. MOUNTAIN ASH. Pyrus americana. (Marshall) De Candolle. 



If any tree has ever masqueraded under a false name, surely 

 it is the mountain ash. To begin with it is scarcely ever a tree, 

 being usually a shrub not more than 

 twenty feet high, yet it is always called a 

 tree. It is not an ash and it does not live 

 on the mountains. On the contrary, it 

 belongs with the pears and apples to the 

 rose family, and it grows in wet places. 

 The Scotchman or Irishman thinks he 

 settles the matter when he calls it the 

 " rowan tree," but the botanist assures us 

 that this name belongs entirely to a Eu- 

 ropean species, and so our tree is left 

 without any name to which it really has a 

 right. Even when it is put where it be- 

 longs, among the apples and pears, it looks 

 out of place, for it has no outward resemblance to these. Yet 

 it is one of our oldest and most esteemed friends, and we would 

 not accuse it of deception. 



This small tree or shrub is found growing in moist places or 

 cool rocky woods across Canada, from the Atlantic Ocean to the 

 eastern shore and islands of Lake Winnipeg. Its most dis- 

 tinctive features are its smooth, or but slightly roughened, thin, 

 grayish bark, .which when scraped off or bruised gives off a 



FIG. 42. Mountain 

 Ash. 



