MOUNTAIN ASH, OR ROWAN. IO9 
Quickbeam is In allusion to the constant movement of foliage, 
quick being the Anglo-Saxon civic, alive. Witch-wood and 
W'itchen are also forms of cwic. 
The True Service [Pyrus sorb us) closely resembles the 
Mountain Ash in habit and foliage, but it is not a native of 
Britain, though it used to be claimed as such, on account of 
its growing in the more mountainous parts of Cornwall and 
in Wyre Forest, Worcestershire. The latter, however, is the 
only Service tree that could put in such a claim, for it grows 
— or grew.? — far from habitations or cultivated land, and the 
presumption is that it has not owed its introduction to man. 
Still, “ one swallow does not make a summer,” and a solitary 
wild tree does not give the species a title to be reckoned as 
British. It is occasionally cultivated here, and its portrait, 
with a brief account of its points of difference from the 
Mountain Ash, may be useful, A comparison of the photo- 
graphs from the boles of the two species will show a great 
difference : that of the Mountain Ash being smooth, whilst 
that of the Service is rugged. The leaf is similarly broken 
up into paired leaflets, but these are broader, and are downy 
on both upper and lower sides. The white flowers are as 
large as May-blossoms, and the fruits, which may be either 
apple-shaped or pear-shaped, are greenish-brown, with rusty 
specks, and four times the size of Rowan-berries. In winter, 
when there are neither leaves, flowers, nor fruits to help in 
the distinction, the bark may be taken in conjunction with 
the leaf-buds, which are green and smooth in this species, 
whilst those of the Mountain Ash are black and downy. The 
fruit may be eaten after it has begun to decay, as in the case 
of the Medlar. 
Loudon describes the wood of the Service as the hardest 
and heaviest of all the trees indigenous to Europe : fine- 
grained, red-tinted, susceptible of a high polish, and much 
