THE EOWAN, OE MOUNTAIN ASH. 



Pl/rus Auoupa'ria Ehrh. 



Like the Pear, the Apple, the Service-tree, and the 

 White Beam, the Kowan, now, perhaps, more com- 

 monly known as the Mountain Ash, is a member 

 of the genus Pyrua. This genus of the Kose 

 tribe is characterised by its apple-like fruits, or 

 " pomes," with a cartilaginous " core " or " endocarp " 

 — the Hawthorns and Medlars, which form allied 

 genera, having more stony centres to their fruits. 

 The Rowan, the White Beam, and the Service- 

 trees form together a sub-genus, known as Sorbus, 

 distinguished by having their small white flowers in 

 branched clusters, technically known as "cymes," 

 which are followed by groups of small berry-like 

 fruits containing but few seeds. The small trees 

 constituting this sub-genus are rather closely allied, 

 differing mainly in the form of their leaves and in 

 the shape and colour of their fruit. The Rowan is 

 sometimes known as the Fowlers' Service-tree, the 

 first word, together with its specific Latin name 

 Aucv/paria, referring to the use of its berries as a 

 lure by bird-catchers, Latin auceps, a fowler. 



The name "Service" has nothing to do with this 

 use for the fruit, nor with the ordinary sense of that 

 word, but is probably merely a corruption of the 

 Latin Sorbus, though it has been supposed to be 

 derived from the Latin cerevisia, beer, the berries of 

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