344 THE SORB-TREE OF WYRE FOREST. 
Numerous examples in British Botany may be quoted of plants 
which in bygone times were comparatively plentiful that are at 
the present time struggling for an existence. One example we 
have in the Asplenium fontanum (Phytol., ix. 221); and if a 
species 1s drawing towards extinction some one individual must 
be the last of its race. I do not think that it is going too far 
to assume that Pyrus domestica may have been as plentiful as 
P. torminalis is at the present time; and perhaps the old Sorb- 
tree may be the omega of its species in this country in a wild 
state. The difficulties which this species has had to contend with 
may have been greater than would appear upon a superficial view 
of the subject, and some of these I shall endeavour to point out. 
To begin with its reproduction, which must be from seed, for I 
believe the Pear is the only British species in the Order that pro- . 
duces suckers ; and it is an established fact known to cultivators, 
that all the trees in the Order possessed of a hard endocarpium 
take two seasons, or until the covering is decayed, to vegetate ; 
and that in such as the Apple, the Pear, and perhaps the Sorb, 
the seeds must be set free, or the acid generated by the decom- 
position of the pulp destroys their vitality. But if some seeds 
should survive these difficulties and vegetate, they would be 
lable to be overgrown and smothered if in a thick wood, or 
bitten off by ruminating animals if in a more open situation, 
and so perish in the first stage of their existence. If we take 
into consideration the system of management of woods in that 
locality, we shall find still greater obstacles to the development 
of the species. 
It is customary, when the underwood has attained a certain 
height and strength, to lop it all off near to the ground; and as 
P. torminalis is much in request amongst the natives for flails, 
beetle-heads, mallets, etc., and that a maiden stem is more prized 
than one growing from a stump previously lopped, it is probable 
that P. torminalis will in aftertime share the fate of its con- 
gener, whose smaller plants have, according to my ideas, disap- 
peared from the above circumstances, or some similar ones. It 
may be added, that trees of the Order Pomacee, and of the Orders 
nearly allied, are much more tenacious of loppmg or pruning 
than are trees of the Order Amentacee, or the Orders allied ; the 
former, if lopped, are shy in putting out young branches again, 
whilst the latter break out again most freely. 
