MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 337 



The Rowan Tree is famed in verse and legend, but surely 

 no tenderer poem was ever penned in its honour than the 

 old immortal song : 



•' O Rowan tree ! O Rowan tree ! thou 'It aye be dear to me ; 

 Entwined thou art wi' mony ties o' hame and infancy. 

 Thy leaves were aye the first o' spring, thy flowers the simmer's pride; 

 There was nae sic a bonnie tree in a' the countrie side, 



O Rowan tree ! 



" How fair wert thou in simmer time, wi' a' thy clusters white ! 

 How rich and gay thy autumn dress, wi' berries red and bright ! 

 We sat aneath thy spreading shade ; the bairnies round thee ran ; 

 They pu'd thy bonnie berries red, and necklaces they Strang, 



O Rowan tree ! " 



SERVICE-BERRY 



Amelanchier alnifolia. Rose Family 



A shrub three to six feet high, more or less tomentose-pubescent when 

 young, at length glabrate throughout and somewhat glaucous. Leaves : 

 thick, broadly elliptic or orbicular, very obtuse, and often truncate at the 

 apex, rounded or subcordate at the base, coarsely dentate above the mid- 

 dle. Flowers : white, in short racemes, rather dense ; petals five, oblan- 

 ceolate, cuneate. Fruit : a globose pome, purple with a bloom, sweet. 



This is the low pearly-flowered shrub which grows on the 

 sandy banks and flats, and which the Indians call Saskatoon, 

 for its sweet purple berries form a staple article of food with 

 them during the months of July and August. It somewhat 

 resembles the Choke Cherry, but its greenish-white blossoms 

 are larger and have long narrow petals ; also its leaves are 

 oval, with flattened ends, and are very coarsely toothed above 

 the middle, whereas those of the Choke Cherry are oblong, 

 pointed, and finely toothed all round the edges. The bark of 

 the little branches of the Service-berry is reddish, and the 

 young leaves are quite pale and downy underneath. 



