fowler's service tree, or mountain ash. 77 



Having already admitted the Holly and the White 

 Thorn within the limits of onr work, we can scarely refuse 

 the claim of another tree, which, in many situations, equals 

 the largest specimens of either of the other two, and which 

 frequently assumes a picturesque character and appearance, 

 and gives a value and heightened interest to wild woodland 

 and mountainous scenery. The tree we allude to is the 

 Mountain Ash, which grows in almost every district of 

 Britain, but whose favourite habitats and where it reaches 

 its greatest size and most imposing appearance, are moun- 

 tainous declivities, or in those deep dells in mountainous 

 and hilly districts, where the earth is loose and free, and 

 kept in that moist state most congenial to its growth, 

 by the percolation of the rain and dews, or of springs which 

 issue from the disruptured rocks. In such localities it 

 frequently becomes a tree of the second or third magnitude, 

 with a form generally devoid of that stiffness and round- 

 topped outline it usually assumes under cultivation, or as 

 seen in dressed and garden grounds. In old trees situated 

 in such wild scenery, the branches lose their formal ap- 

 pearance, and as they become elongated and unable to 

 sustain the annually increasing weight of the foliage, gra- 

 dually yield and take a partially pendant direction. Such 

 are many of those groups which claimed the approving 

 notice of Grilpin, and which we have oft admired in 

 the wild and enchanting scenery of the Scottish High- 

 lands ; and such were the old and venerable trees in our 

 own romantic dene at Twizell, before the destructive 

 storms of the last few winters overthrew and laid low 

 the leafy honours of the largest and finest among them. 

 In addition to a light and graceful foliage, charming us 

 with its fresh and lively tint, the Mountain Ash, in 

 spring, bears conspicuous and sweet-smelling corymbs of 



