86 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



of May ; and the Scotch dairy-maid will 

 drive her cattle to the shealings or summer 

 pastures, with no other rod than that of the 

 roan-tree, by which name it is generally 

 known in Scotland. It obtained the name 

 of mountain-ash, in England, from its grow- 

 ing in hilly situations, and its leaves being 

 pinnated like those of the common ash, fraxi- 

 nus ; but it has no more affinity to the ash, 

 than the apple-tree has to the oak. 



The trivial name of aucuparia was given it 

 from the practice of the fowlers, who use the 

 fruit to bait their springes with, by which 

 they entice the redwings and fieldfares to 

 their snare. The Scottish highlanders, as 

 well as the inhabitants of Kamtschatka, distil 

 an ardent spirit from this fruit ; and in Wales 

 the poor people infuse it in water, and make 

 an acid liquor resembling cider, which they 

 drink with pleasure. 



In the island of Jura they use the juice of 

 this fruit as an acid for punch. 



The wood of this tree is tough and close- 

 grained, but not hard ; and it appears to have 

 been much more plentiful in our woods for- 

 merly, than at present ; as Evelyn says, it is 

 mentioned in a statute of Henry the Eighth, 

 and he observes, that the fletchers commend 



