CHAPTER XXXVI: THE MOUNTAIN ASHES 



Family Rosace/E 



Genus SORBUS, Linn. 



Small trees of good habit, with ornamental foliage, flowers 

 and fruit. Leaves alternate, 7 to 17 leaflets, serrate. Flowers 

 small, white, in many-flowered flat corymbs. Fruit small, red, 

 berry-like. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Buds sticky; shoots smooth. 



B. Leaflets taper pointed, pale green. 



{S. Americana) American mountain ash 

 BB. Leaflets abruptly pointed, dark green. 



(5. samhicijolia) elder-leaved mountain ash 

 AA. Buds woolly; branchlets and petioles pubescent; leaflets 

 blunt pointed, dull green. (Exotic.) 

 {S. Aucuparia) European mountain ash or rowan tree 



The handsome foliage and showy clusters of flowers and 

 fruits make this a favourite genus of trees and shrubs for orna- 

 mental planting. There are about thirty species of Sorbus, 

 widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere and chiefly 

 inhabitants of mountain slopes. Their contentment with poor 

 soil and exposed situations make them valuable for the covering 

 of broken ground, where they show to the best advantage. In 

 autumn the red berries are m.atched by the ruddy foliage. Birds 

 often depend on the berries for food in snowy winters. On a 

 lawn a mountain ash is a neat and very decorative little tree at all 

 seasons. 



Mountain Ash (Sorbus Americana, Marsh.) — A small tree, 

 attaining 30 feet, with slender spreading branches, forming 

 pyramidal head. Bark smooth, brown or grey, with large lenticels 

 like those on cherry; taste bitter. Wood pale brown, close 

 grained, weak. 5mJ5 reddish, pointed, glutinous. Leaves \)\nmXc, 

 6 to 12 inches long, alternate; petioles red; leaflets 13 to 17, lanceo- 



