166 KOSACE^. [Pyrus. 



** Leaves simple, lobed or cut. 



3. p. torminalis, Sm. Wild Service-tree.* Leaves nearly gla- 

 brous incised somewhat wedge-shaped rounded at the base une- 

 qually 5 — 7 lobed, lobes serrated acute the two basal ones divari- 

 cate, panicle corymbose its branches together with the calyx and 

 claws of the petals tomentose, fruit oval dotted. Sm. E. Fl. ii. p. 

 863. Br. Fl. p. 133. E. B. v. t. 298. Jacq^. Fl. Aust. v. t. 443. 



In woods and copses, ravely in hedges ; fiequent in various parts of the plain 

 country North of the centriil chalk range, scarcely found on its South side or 

 much above ihe sea-level. jF/. May, June. i^r. October, November ? Tj . 



JE. Med. — Most abundantly in the wood at the West side of the mouth of the 

 Wootton river, forming in some parts no inconsiderable portion of the underwood. 

 In Quarr copse, not unfrequent. Common along the sea side of Shore copse. 

 Slroud wood. Hedge near Coppid Hall. A single rather fine tree in a field 

 near Knighton farm. Woods at the back of Norris castle. Wood (Huntwilhy 

 copse ?) by the Medina, just above the Rope- walk at E. Cowes. Firestone copse, 

 and near Haven-slreet. .\ tree or two in Bordwood forest. Plentiful in Brock's 

 copse, near Whippingham. All over Briddlesford wood in great abundance, 

 prevailing almost as much in the form of a tree as that of underwood. At Fern- 

 hill, and between that and Woodhouse, frequent. 



fV. Med. — Plentiful in Nun's wood, by Ningwood. 



A handsome tree, of considerable stature and rounded or pyramidal outline, the 

 principal branches with an erect tendency, the young leaves hoary with silky 

 hairs, the scales of their buds yellowish, glutinous and fringed with glands. 

 Leaves 3 or 4 inches long and nearly as many wide, on rather long rounded and 

 downy petioles, firm, deep shining green above, slightly downy on both sides, 

 most so when young and on the under surface, deeply cut into 5 or 7 acute, 

 sharply serrated, unequal lobes, the 3 terminal ones more or less confluent or 

 indistinct, and as well as the middle pair pointing forwards, the 2 basal lobes 

 largest, widely spreading or divaricate, rounded or sometimes slightly cordate 

 behind at the base. Petioles downy, rounded. Stipules none. Flowers in loose, 

 panicled, erect corymbs, not very numerous, cream-coloured, unpleasantly scented, 

 their pedicels and branches of the corymb very woolly. Calyx tomentose, sepals 

 small, acute, with a few brownish glands on iheir margin. Petals villous within 

 near their claws. Anthers cream-coloured. Styles 2 in my specimens (3, 4, or 5 

 in the same panicle, Sm.), hairy at the base. Fruit 6 or 8 lines in length, 

 roundish pear-shaped, depresso-umbilicate, a little downy at both ends, at first of 

 a russet-colour, very hard and austere, hut when ripe chocolate-brown spotted 

 with pale dots, soft, mealy and agreeably acid, much resembling medlars in taste 

 (or with much of the flavour of tamarinds) : cells 2 — 5, closed at top, each with 

 a solitary, ovate, uneven seed ; (in all my specimens the pome is 2-celled, with one 

 of the cells abortive). 



The fruit is well known in Sussex by the name of Checquers, from its speckled 

 appearance, and sold both there and in this island, in the shops and public mar- 

 kets, tied up in bunches, priucipally to children. At Ryde they go under the 

 name of Sorbus berries, but are not in much request, a fact by no means surprising 



* The name Service, applied to the tree and its fruit, is, I suspect, derived 

 from Cerevisia or Cervisia, a liquor prepared from grain (Cerealia) by the ancient 

 Gauls, and analogous to our beer, of which beverage a kind has been brewed time 

 out of mind from the berries of some tree of the present genus, called Sorbus by 

 the ancients, " quod ejus succum sorbere solent.". The Welsh prepare a similar 

 drink at this day from the fruit of the Mountain Ash, called Sorbus sylveslris by 

 many of the older writers on plants. 



