POMACE.

MEDLAR TREE.

MESPILUS.

ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA.

French, neflier; Italian, nespolo.

THE Dutch Medlar, Mespilus Germanica, is a middlesized branching tree; the leaves are of an oval shape, but turning off to a point at the extremity (what the botanists term oval lanceolate), large, and rather woolly; the blossoms are white, and large; and the fruit is a berry of the size of a smallish apple. This tree is a native of Asia, and the south of Europe; it blossoms in June and July. Both the trunk and the branches are commonly very crooked; the branches begin not far from the ground.

The fruit of the Medlar is not agreeable to the taste until it is in a state of decay:

"The medlar, fruit delicious in decay.”

J. PHILIPS.

This fruit bears on the top the form of a crown, which gives occasion to Cowley to say,―

"the medlar tree was found

Proud of its putrid fruit, because 'twas crowned."

Philips, speaking of grafted fruits, says,

men have gathered from the hawthorn's branch Large medlars, imitating regal crowns."

Captain Stedman, in his expedition to Surinam, speaks of some medlars which were of a crimson colour, and in taste resembled strawberries*.

Chaucer describes a goldfinch eating the blossoms of the medlar :

"And as I stood and cast aside mine eye,

I was ware of the fairest medler tree
That ever yet in all my life I sie,

As full of blossomes as it might be,
Therein a goldfinch leaping pretile

From bough to bough; and, as him list, he eet
Here and there of buds and floures sweet."

The Flower and the Leaf.

Mr. Miller describes the Wild Medlar as a different species, a native of Sicily, where, he says, it becomes a large tree, and grows with a straight stem, and that the leaves, flowers, and fruit are smaller than those of the Dutch Medlar.

The Bastard Quince, Mespilus Chama-mespilus, which some botanists consider as a pyrus, grows five feet high ; the leaves have a yellowish tinge; the fruit is small, and red. It is a native of the Pyrenees, the mountains of Austria, the higher parts of Jura, the neighbourhood of Geneva, &c. It was cultivated by Mr. J. Sutherland in 1683, and blossoms in May.

The Japan Mespilus, or Loquat, M. Japonica, which some of the most modern botanists have removed out of the genus and placed by itself, under the name of Chenomeles Japonica, is a large and lofty tree; the taste of the fruit is something like that of an apple. It blossoms in May and June.

* Vol.-ii. p. 173.

The Dwarf Mespilus, M. Cotoneaster, which is in like manner denied a place among the mespili by some botanists, is a low spreading shrub, not more than two feet high the leaves are alternate, the upper surface, bright green and smooth; the lower, white, woolly, and finely netted. The flowers are white, tinged with purple; the fruit is first green, it then becomes orange-coloured, afterwards red, and finally black. This is a native of many parts of Europe, and of Siberia: it blossoms in April and May. Mr. J. Tradescant, junior, cultivated this species in the year 1656.

The Quince-leaved Mespilus, M. Tomentosa, which some botanists associate with the preceding to form a genus, Cotoneaster, grows about eight feet high. Its purple blossoms open in April or May; the fruit is round and large, and red when ripe. Mr. Miller had this in his garden in 1759.

MOUNTAIN-ASH TREE.

PYRUS AUCUPARIA.

POMACEE.

ICOSANDRIA TRIGYNIA,

This tree is a species of service, called the mountain service: it is also called quicken tree, witchen tree, and roan, or rowan tree. It is here placed apart from the common service, only because it is now so generally known by the name of mountain ash, that many persons would not know it under that head. In Scotland it is as commonly called the roan tree. French, sorbier des oiseleurs, bird-catcher's service; Italian, sorbo salvatico.

THE Mountain Ash is an elegant tree in all seasons of the year. The leaves are pinnate, (the reader will understand that a pinnate leaf, composed of several pairs of leaflets placed opposite at regular distances, in botanical language, is, in common parlance, a spray on which are placed so many leaves in pairs,) notched at the edges, without footstalks, having a channeled mid-rib, often tinged with purple.

It is a native of the colder parts of Europe, as Mount Lebanon, Siberia, and in boggy and mountainous situations in the north of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In the south of England it is seldom found of any considerable size, but in the northern counties, and in Wales, there are large trees, although the growth is slow. The blossoms are white, and sweet scented; blowing in May, in little clusters or corymbs, and are succeeded by berries which, when ripe, are of a brilliant red colour. The blackbirds and thrushes are so fond

of them, that they will not always give them time to ripen.

In Germany, the fowlers bait springes or nooses of hair with these berries, which they hang in the woods to entice the redwings and fieldfares whence the French name, and the Latin specific name, which has a similar meaning.

It is said that the Mountain Ash berries, dried and powdered, will make a wholesome bread; and when we consider that the Swedish peasants are often reduced to subsist on bread made of the bark of the elm, fir, or birch tree, we may easily suppose that made of these berries would be a comparative luxury. An ardent spirit also is distilled from them, small in quantity, but of fine flavour. The Scottish Highlanders and the Kamtschadales make that use of them. Infused in water, they make an acid liquor, somewhat similar to perry, which is drunk by the Welsh poor, who call it DiodGraviole, or Ciavol-drink. In the island of Jura, their juice is used as an acid for punch.

The wood is used in mill-work,-for tables, chairs, &c. the roots are formed into knife and spoon handles. The fletchers commend it for bows, as second only to yew, and it is an excellent fuel.

Few persons, even of the inhabitants of London, are entirely unacquainted with the Mountain Ash, its elegant foliage, and glowing fruit; or with the light and cheerful contrast it makes with the fir, or larch trees: but only those who have travelled northwards, we are told, have seen it in all its beauty. Mr. Gilpin says, that in the Scottish Highlands it becomes a considerable tree, and that a few of them interspersed with the dark pines and the waving birch have a very fine effect.

In old times the Mountain Ash was an object of great