248 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES III— PYRUS AUCUPARIA. Giirtn. 

 Plate CCCCLXXXVI. 

 Sorbus aucuparia, Linn. Sp. Plant, p. 683. Sin. Eng. Bot. No. 337. 



Leaves pinnate, with 6 to 8 pairs of elliptical oblong serrate leaf- 

 lets and an odd terminal one, downy beneath when young, gene- 

 rally glabrous when old. Flowers in a corymbose cyme. Calyx- 

 segments applied to the petals when in flower, inflexed when in 

 fruit. Styles generally 3, woolly at the base. Fruit small, ovoid- 

 spherical, scarlet, generally 3-celled, more rarely 2- or 4-celled. 



In woods and in hilly districts on rocks. Common, and generally 

 distributed ; most abundant in the North of England and Scotland, 

 reaching as far North as Orkney and Shetland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Tree. Early Summer. 



A tree 10 to 30 feet high, with smooth brownish-grey bark, 

 reddish on the regularly spreading branches Leaflets 1 to 2 inches 

 long, sub-sessile, with acuminated serratures which are rounded on 

 the outer margin, pale beneath, but generally downy only on the 

 veins when mature. Corymb compact, many-flowered. Flowers 

 f inch across, cream-white. Petals orbicular-concave. Fruit 

 \ inch long, brigJit scarlet, with the flesh yellowi-sh ; the cells 

 containing the seeds tougher than in the preceding species. 



Mountain-ash, Moican-tree. 



German, Gaerln, Eheresche. 



This elegant tree is known to most persons in this country as an ornament of the 

 shrubbery and plantation. Its beautiful pinnated leaves and bright scarlet berries make 

 it an attractive object wherever it is seen. The tree grows rapidly for the first three or 

 four years, attaining in five years the height of eight or nine feet, after which it begins 

 to form a head, and in ten yeai's will attain the height of twenty feet. This head will 

 continue to increase .slowly, though seldom growing higher, for the greater part of a 

 century, after which the extremities of the branches begin to decay. The tree will not 

 bear lo])ping, but grass and other plants grow well under its shade. It is a tree well 

 adapted for small or suburban gardens, and is always a beautiful object : it never 

 requires pruning, and never grows out of shape. Singing-birds rtjoice in its berries, 

 and the owner of such a tree has the double j)leasure of listening to the songs of the 

 thru.sh and the blackbird, and of beholding the brilliant branches of coral berries which 

 tempt them there. In various parts of the North of Europe these berries are dried 

 and ground into flour and used in times of scarcity. In Wales and the Highlands they 

 are sometimes eaten, and the juice is fermented into a liquid resembling cider. Evelyn 

 says : " Ale and beer brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink, 

 familiar in Wales." He adds : " Besides the use of this tree for the husbandman's 

 tools, goods, (fee, the wheelwright commends it for being all heart ; our fletchers 

 (archers) corn-mend it for bows next to yew, which we ought not to pass over for the 



