70 ' FAMILIAR TREES 
to agriculture and on the other to plantations of more 
valuable timber. 
In the woodlands of Kent, Sussex, and even 
Middlesex, this species forms a small standard tree; 
but on the rugged precipitous limestone cliffs that 
overhang the “sylvan Wye,” as at the Great Doward, 
the Windcliff or the romantic heights of Lancaut, 
opposite Percefield, amid grotesque Yews and gnarled 
Beeches, it is but a small bush. One of the most 
remarkable examples of the species, however, is in 
the south-west of England—in Warleigh Wood, near 
the mouth of the River Tavy. This tree is between 
thirty and forty feet high, and has its bole clear of 
branches for about six feet from the ground and 
four feet in girth at its base. 
The wood of the Service is hard and tough. Under 
the microscope it exhibits its small vessels slightly 
more crowded towards the inner margin of each 
annual ring, but also distributed throughout the 
whole radius of the ring, almost in single rows 
between every two of the fine but distinct pith- 
rays. At Edenbridge, in Kent, where it is termed 
Chequer-wood, it used to be preferred to all other 
woods for flails; but Beis of corn is 
now rarely seen. 
Some of the other Teel names recorded for = 
species, such as “shir” in Surrey and “lezzory” 
“lizzory” in the Cotswolds, are difficult to ie 
but the name “ Maple Service” seems to be merely a 
somewhat unhappy book-name, derived from some 
resemblance in the lobing of the leaf to some kind 
of Maple. 
