194 NOTICES OF THE SORB-TREE 
Worcestershire, one mile from Mopson’s Cross, between that and 
Dowles Brook. With.’ The same author informs us that it was 
to be found in the moorlands of Staffordshire ; but adds, “I have 
not yet received a confirmation of its still growing there. Mrs. 
Gardner informs me that this tree still grows in the forest of 
Wire; also, a friend of Mr. Pilkington’s surgeon, Bewdley, who 
resides near the spot, gives me the same information.” In 
Sowerby’s ‘English Botany,’ the author of the descriptive part 
of that work states: “We have been favoured by Lord Viscount 
Valentia with fresh wild specimens of this rare British plant, 
gathered from a solitary tree in the middle of Wire Forest, near 
Bewdley ; the same probably that was observed by Mr. Pitt, in 
Ray’s time.” Smith, E. B. in loco. 
There is one remark to be made here, and it merits conside- 
ration. Gerarde, Johnson, and Parkinson do not mention this 
individual tree ; probably they never heard of it. Robert Plot, 
in his ‘ Natural History of Staffordshire, page 208, gives the 
following account :—“ As for trees not noted to be of English 
growth by the learned Mr. Ray, the Sorbus pyriformis is not the 
only one I met with here, which grows wild in the moorlands at 
many places, and is sometimes transplanted into their gardens. 
It is described by L’Obelius, Matthiolus, and Bauhin, who una- 
nimously place it in France, Italy, and Germany; but the first 
that ever found (at least noted) it to be a native of England, that 
ever I heard of, was the skilful botanist Mr. Edmund Pitt, al- 
derman of Worcester, who met with it in a forest of that county, 
and sent this description of it to the Royal Society. It resem- 
bles (says he) the Ornus, or Quicken-tree, only the Ornus bears 
the flowers and fruit at the end, this on the sides, of the branch: 
next the sun the fruit hath a dark-red blush, and is about the 
bigness of a small jeneting pear; in September of so harsh an 
astringent taste that it almost strangles one, but being gathered 
and kept till October, it eats as well as a medlar.” It might be 
hazardous even to hint that probably Plot never saw this tree 
either in Wyre Forest or on the moorlands of Staffordshire, 
whence it was ‘ sometimes transplanted into the gardens.” But 
if they did grow on the moors in many places, what became of 
them? The solitary tree in Wyre Forest is now the sole survi- 
vor. The accounts given by Hudson, Withering, and Purton, 
are all founded on Plot’s account, and are all likely to mislead. 
