fowler's service tree, or mountain ash. 79 



by the shade and drip of those it was planted to shelter 

 and protect ;" or else, as the other trees are thinned out, 

 it may be cut over and kept up as a permanent and 

 profitable undergrowth. The fruit of the Mountain Ash 

 is a favourite food of all the thrush tribe ; and in Germany , 

 and other continental parts, where the smaller species of 

 game is eagerly sought after, and highly esteemed for 

 the table, the horse-hair nooses by which they are caught 

 in the woods are baited with the berries of the Mountain 

 Ash. The berries are also sometimes eaten as a fruit, 

 and we have seen them exposed for sale in the streets 

 of Glasgow, but they are harsh and austere to the taste, 

 besides possessing an unpleasant and peculiar flavour 

 similar to that conveyed to the smell by the green or 

 recently cut wood. When fermented and distilled, they 

 yield a strong ardent spirit, and in Wales they used to 

 brew a beer or ale from them, which Evelyn records as 

 " incomparable drink familiar in Wales." 



Of the superstitious notions, and supposed virtues for- 

 merly attached to the Rowan tree, some slight and linger- 

 ing remains are still occasionally to be found in remote and 

 sequestered districts, and a dreamy supposition of its 

 power to avert the influence of what is called the " evil 

 eye" is at times acknowledged. These notions, however, 

 are likely to be entirely forgotten, since education has 

 become more diffused, and a free intercourse and access, 

 even to the remotest districts, has been opened by our 

 steamboats, railroads, and other improvements, and the 

 ancient and reverential honours paid to the Witchen tree, 

 will soon be only known by tradition and by what has 

 been recorded in the writings of the olden time. 



The Mountain Ash is readily propagated from the seed, 

 which it produces in large terminal clusters at an early 



