198 AN ADDRESS BY THE EDITORS. 
the causes of the decay of this interesting relic. A botanist well 
known to all the botanists of the present age, bemg at Bewdley, 
and remembering that the Sorb-tree grew im this neighbour- 
hood, before his departure, expressed a wish to an ostler or a 
groom well acquainted with the tree and its locality, to get a 
specimen of it. The person started off znstanter, and soon re- 
turned with a load of branches, enough, we were told by our 
informant, to make a couple of good-sized fagots. 

Note.—In a report of a visit to this tree in August, 1853, by 
the members of the Worcestershire Naturalists’ Field-Club, there 
is the following account of the Sorb, which we extract for the 
benefit of such of our readers as have not the ‘ Phytologist’ for 
that period at hand:— The party examined the old Pyrus do- 
mestica, or the true Service-tree, the only one known of the kind, 
apparently wild, im any part of Brita. . . . It is thin and de- 
crepit, quite bare of foliage below; it now extends its lank arms 
a considerable height in air, and is only verdant at the extre- 
mitics of these lofty branches. In fact it is im the last stage of 
decay, and a few more years will probably leave it a mere wea- 
ther-beaten trunk. Only this single tree of the Pyrus domestica 
has at any time been found within the forest precincts, and how 
it got there, is unknown; but it is probable there would have 
been others if it had been indigenous at the spot, the imference 
would seem to be that it was brought from abroad. Mr. Lees 
pointed out a mound of broken stones and débris now overgrown 
with brambles, not far from the tree, which seemed like the ruins 
of an old building, and suggested that a hermitage might have 
been formerly there, and the tree brought from Aquitame by 
some recluse, in the time of Edward III., when the English, 
under the Black Prince, occupied that duchy.” 
An Address to the Contributors, Subscribers, and Friends of the 
‘ Phytologist” By the Epirors. 
At this season, when compliments and good wishes are as 
plentiful as “the leaves of the forest when summer is green,” or 
blackberries in October, when the year is falling into “the sere 
and yellow leaf,” we are admonished, both by our feelings and 
