488 NEW EXGLAND TREES IX WINTER. 



AMERICAN MOUNTAIN ASH 

 Rowan or Service Tree. 



Pyrus americana (Marsh.) DC. 

 Sorbus americana Marsh. 



HABIT — A shrub or small tree 15-20 tt. high or In northern New 



Flng-Iand reaching- a Iieiglit of 25-30 ft. with a trunk diameter of 12-15 



inches; with slender spreading branches forming a rather narrow 

 round-topped head. 



B.VRIv — Grayish-brown, smooth or on older trees somewhat roughish. 



TAVIGS — Stout, smooth, reddish to grayish-brown. LENTICELS — con- 

 spicuous, large, pale, oblong, remotely scattered. PITH — broad, slightly 

 reddish -brown. 



LiE.\F-SC.\RS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked. large, crescent to 

 brnadh- U or ^'-shaped. raised on a projection darker than tlie twig. 

 STIPULR-SC.-VRS— absent. BUNDLE-SCARS — regularly 5, often raised, 

 arranged in a single curved line. 



nuns — Terminal buds large, about 1" mm. long, ovate to broadly 

 conical \r[{h a cur\"ed pointed apex, dark purplish-red, gummy and 

 smooth or witli few liairs on tlie surface, denpelv woolU- within: lateral 

 buds smaller, flattened and appressed. BUD-SCALES — 2-3 visible to 

 terminal bud: 1-2 to lateral bud. 



FRUIT — Berry-like, bright red. strongly acid, round, about the size 

 of a pea. in flat-topped clusters persistent through the winter. 



C03rP.\!tlS0\S — A larger fruited form, the Western Mountain Ash 

 ■ IPyius silclieyisis (PLOem.) Piper], is considered by some a distinct 

 species but bj- others only a variety of the type described. It is more 

 northerl>- ana westerly in its distribution. The European Mountain 

 Ash [Pijiiis Auciiparia (L.) Ehrh.] with many horticultural forms is 

 more frequently cultivated than the American species and has escaped 

 from cultivation in some places. It may be distinguished by the white 

 hairy down present especially on the upper half of the terminal bud 

 and by the larger fruits (about 10 mm. broad) arranged in a rather 

 round-topped cluster. The habit, bark, fruit and lower twig photo- 

 graphs are of the European species. 



I)ISTRini:T10.\' — River banks, cool woods, swamps, and mountains. 

 Newfoundland to Manitoba; south, in cold swamps and along the moun- 

 tains to North Carolina; west to Michigan and Minnesota. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — common; New Hampshire — common 

 along the watersheds of the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers and on 

 the slopes of the W^hite Mountains; Vermont — abundant far up the 

 slopes of the Green mountains; Massachusetts — Graylock. Wachusett, 

 Watatic. and other mountainous regions; rare eastward; Rhode Island — 

 occasional in the northern sections. 



IN CONNECTICUT — Rare or local. Swamps and about ponds or some- 

 times on dry ledges or in rocky woods; Stafford, Durham and Merlden, 

 Granby, Winchester, Norfolk, Canaan, Salisbury, Kent. 



The variety (Pyrus sitehnnsis) the W^estern Mountain Ash, has the fol- 

 lowing distribution — Mountain slopes, cool woods, along the shores of 

 rivers and ponds, often associated with Pyrus cnnericana, but climbing 

 higher up the mountains. From Labrador and Nova Scotia west to the 

 Rocky mountains, then northward along the mountain ranges to Alaska. 

 In New England, confined to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. 



WOOD — Close-grained, light, soft and weak, pale brown with light- 

 er colored sapwood of 15-20 la^-ers of anntial growth; of little economic 

 value. The very astringent bark and berries are employed medicinally. 



