TZ£i: MOUNTAZXr ASK 



In Latin, Sorbus ; in French, Sorbies. 



414. The botanical characters are : — The flower has a spreading concave 

 permanent empalement of one leaf, indented ia five parts ; it has five 

 roundish concave petals, which are in the empalement, and about twenty 

 awl-shaped stamina, which are also inserted in the empalement, terminated 

 by roundish summits. The germen is situated under the flower, supporting 

 three slender styles crowned by erect-headed stigmas ; it afterwards become » 

 a soft umbilicated fruit, enclosing three or four oblong cartilaginous, seeds. 



415. This is neither timber-tree nor underwood ; and I 

 mention it in this book only because it is found here and 

 there in almost all our coppices. I know of no utility 

 that belongs to it, and cannot guess at the reason for calling 

 it an Ash, which it resembles in no respect whatever. It 

 is planted, as an ornamental shrub, merely on account of 

 its large bunches of red berries, which it bears in great 

 profusion, and which hang on till a late season of the year, 

 unless the birds be very much pressed for food, and then 

 the berries disappear very quickly. 



416. This tree throws out a great number of suckers, and 

 from these it is generally propagated. The suckers are 

 dug up when small, put into a nursery for a year or two, 

 and then planted out where they are to stand. But, a 

 great part of the merit of this shrub, consists in its being 

 somewhat lofty ; and to have it lofty, and with a straight 

 trunk, it ought to be raised from seed. The seed, like that 

 of the Hawthorn, has a pulp on the outside, a hard shell 

 next to the pulp, and within the shell is the kernel. 



