MOUNTAIN ASH, OR ROWAN. 
107 
get them sown far and wide. By this method the process of 
germination is considerably hastened, whereas by hand-sowing 
the seeds lie in the earth for eighteen months before shooting. 
All the species of Pyrus produce their fruits with this object, 
the larger more or less brownish ones being intended to attract 
mammals, the smaller and red-coloured to tempt birds. The 
A, portion of flower-cluster. 
seeds have leathery jackets to protect them from the action of 
the digestive fluids, and are further wrapped in a parchmenty, 
bony, or wooden “ core ” {endocarp') with a similar object. In 
the case of the Rowan this is very like wood. 
In the south of Britain the Mountain Ash is chiefly grown as 
underwood and used as a nurse for oaks and other timber trees, 
which soon outgrow it and kill it ; so that in the woods it is 
