98 FAMILIAR TREES 



all the group having once been largely used in brew- 

 ing. John Evelyn, in his " Sylva/' speaks of the fruit 

 of the Rowan as affording " an incomparable drink, 

 familiar in Wales " ; and, whilst there the berries are 

 most commonly only made into an infusion, in Russia 

 a spirit is distilled from them, and in the North ol 

 Europe they have, in times of scarcity, been even 

 dried and ground into flour. 



The name of Rowan has been somewhat improb- 

 ably derived from the roan colour of the bark ; but 

 though this appellation is probably of a far different 

 origin, there can be little doubt that it is to this grey 

 and smooth rind, its graceful ascending branches and 

 "pinnate" leaves, that it owes the name of Ash. Even 

 its clusters of white blossoms resemble at a distance 

 those of the Flowering or Manna Ash {Fraxinus 

 Ornus) of the Continent, though the true Ash trees 

 have no relationship to this rosaceous plant. 



Whilst the White Beam and Wild Service are also 

 common in rocky, hilly, or even mountainous situa- 

 tions, it is especially the Rowan that rejoices in bleak, 

 rocky crags, overhanging the gills and becks of our 

 mountains. It grows at an altitude of 2,600 feet in 

 the Scottish Highlands, and thus well deserves the 

 prefix " Mountain " to its name. Springing from some 

 bare ledge of yellow sandstone or grey hmestone, 

 but conspicuous even in the thickest leafage by its 

 characteristically tinted fruits, in such situations it 

 might well rf'quire a poet to describe — 



" How clung the Bowan to the rock, 

 And through the foliage showed his head, 

 .With narrow leayes and berries rod." 



