168 ROSACEA. [Pyrus. 



upright branches, the extremities of which, as well as the short flowering shoots, 

 are extremely brittle, though the older wood is tough and pliant ; for this reason 

 the adventurous explorer of the craggy and precipitous localities in which it most 

 luxuriates must cautiously avail himself of its assistance in climbing the steep 

 ascent. Leaves mostly fascicled, 3, 4, 5, or more together, on short lateral spurs, a 

 few at the extreme downy tips of the young branches alternate ; ovate, obovato- 

 elliptical or oblong, cu eate at the base or a little rounded, never cordate, coarsely, 

 sharply and unequally serrate, often doubly so, with a tendency to become lobed, 

 or in one variety (P. pinnatifida, Ehrh.) even pinnatifid ; fiom 3 to 6 inches long 

 and from li to 3i inches wide ; above bright green, soft and somewhat hoary 

 with fine, close, cottony pubescence, which easily rubs off; beneath silvery, white 

 and tomentose, with the same but far more copious pubescence as on the upper 

 surface, not removable by friction ; the mid-rib and the many straight parallel 

 ones very prominent and rounded. Petioles very short, tomentose, nearly cylin- 

 drical. Stipules lanceolate, deciduous {Sm. .') Panicles terminal on the branches 

 and lateral spurs, corymbose, convex, leafy at the base, much compounded, the 

 branches tomentose, erect and unequal, the lowermost remote. Flowers nume- 

 rous, white or cream-coloured, above ^ an inch in diameter, not unpleasantly 

 scented. Pedicels very unequal, woolly, and furnished at their base and about 

 their middle with one or two long, subulate, deciduous bracts. Calyx densely 

 cottony, with distant, triangular, acuminate, green sesments, much shcu-ter than 

 the 5 roundish, obovate, very concave, entire petofo, which are furnished with a tuft 

 of long woolly hairs just above their very short abrupt claws. Stamens erect, very 

 unequal, their white filaments and cream-coloured anthers glabrous. Styles 2 in 

 all my specimens, a little spreading at their summits, much shorter than the outer 

 stamens, thick, anafular and glabrous ; stigmas greenish, depresso-orbicular. Ger- 

 men shaggy. Fruit (pomes) i an inch long, subglobose, flaltened at top, of a 

 yellowish, orange or scarlet-colour, sprinkled with a few whitish dots, more or 

 less lanuginose at each end, as are their peduncles, with mouldy-looking pubes- 

 cence ; 2, 3, or 4-celled, the cells cartilaginous, closed at the summit. Seeds 

 (pyrena) mostly 2 in each cell, dark brown, erect, oblong-angular and hollowed 

 on the inner side. Pulp yellowish, mealy, acid and astringent. 



*** Leaves pinnate. 



5. P. aucuparia, Gsert. Mountain Ash. Quicken-tree. " Leaves 

 pinnated usually glabrous when old, leaflets serrated, flowers 

 corymbose, fruit small globose." — Br. Fl. p. 133. Sorbus, E. B. 

 t. 337. 



In mostly hilly or rocky woods ; very rare and perhaps not really indigenous.* 

 F/. May, June. jPr. August, September. Tj. 



E.Med. — In a wood called Stile-close copse, between Woott on bridge and 

 Newport on the left a little beyond Fernhill, very sparingly, 1839. Hide copse 

 or Great Hill copse, by America, rather more frequently, and a solitary sapling 

 tree by the brook in the dell at Apse Castle (called, I believe. Tinker's Hole), 

 where it certainly was never purposely planted. Several trees at Apse Castle, 

 1846. Amongst the rocks in Luccombe landslip, but very sparingly. 



ground, 3 feet 8f inches. The tree is not above 17 or 18 feet in heiuht, with a 

 rounded spreading head, the trunk dividing, at 3 feet from the ground, into seve- 

 ral stout arms. 



* I have observed the Mountain Ash in the copses about Bishop's- Waltham, 

 where it is certainly indigenous, though, as in this island, it is not allowed to 

 escape the periodical cutting of the wood, and hence none but veiy small slocks 

 are to be met with wild. I have also found it plentifully at Shidfield, near Wick- 

 ham, in the copse where Convallaria majalis grows, thus proving it to be a genu- 

 ine native of the county, and probably also of this island, of which I had pre- 

 viously some doubt. 



