the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

148 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
and fruit at the end, this on the sides of the branch. Next the sun, the fruit has a
dark red flush, and is about the size of a small jeneting pear. In September, so
rough as to be ready to strangle one. But being then gathered and kept till October,
they eat as well as any medlar."
Ray's account 1 in 1724 is as follows : " The true Service or Sorb. It hath been
observed to grow wild in many places in the mountainous part of Cornwall by
that ingenious young gentleman, Walter Moyle, Esq., in company with Mr. Stevens
of that county. I suspect this to be the tree called Sorbus pyriformis, found by
Mr. Pitt, alderman of Worcester, in a forest of that county, and said to grow wild
in many places of the morelands in Staffordshire by Dr. Plot, Hist. Nat. Stafford,
208." In modern times the tree has, however, never been found wild in any part
of Cornwall or Stafford, and probably it was confused with Pyrus latifolia?
Nash, 3 in 1781, refers to the tree in the Wyre forest as occurring " in the eastern
part of Aka or Rock parish, about a mile from Mopson's Cross, between that and
Dowles Brook, in the middle of a thick wood belonging to Mr. Baldwyn, which I
suppose to be the Sorbus saliva pyriformis, mentioned by Mr. Pitt in the Philo
sophical Transactions for 1 678, called by the common people the Quicken pear tree."
This tree was figured by Loudon, 4 t. 644, from a drawing sent him by the Earl of
Mountmorris. The Rev. Josiah Lee, rector of the Far Forest, told Mrs. Wood
ward that the old inhabitants of the district, where it was called the " Whitty Pear
tree," used to hang pieces of the bark round their necks as a charm to cure a sore
throat. Lee's Botany of Worcestershire, 4, gives a good figure of this tree "from a
sketch taken many years ago," and another as it appeared in 1856; and says that in
1853 it was in a very decrepit state, producing a little fruit at its very summit. It
was burnt down in 1862, by a fire kindled at its base by a vagrant. In a note Lees
says that he thinks the tree must have been brought from Aquitaine and planted
beside a hermitage in the forest, of which no trace is left but a mound of stones
overgrown by brambles. He found the privet and Prunus domestica occurring near
it, and nowhere else in the forest.
A seedling (Plate 46) from the Wyre forest tree is growing on the lawn at
Arley Castle, near Bewdley, formerly the property of Lord Mountmorris, now the
residence of Mr. R. Woodward. I measured it in 1903, when it was 55 feet high
by 7 feet 4 inches in girth, and quite healthy, though a large hole in the trunk has
been filled with cement. A few seedlings have been raised from it at Arley, but
grow very slowly.
There is a large healthy tree in the park at Ribston Hall, Wetherby, the seat
of Major Dent, of the pyriform variety, which in 1906 I found to be about 65 feet
high by 9 feet in girth, and bearing fruit. This tree was probably brought from
France by the same Sir. H. Goodricke who sowed the original Ribston pippin in 1709.
1 Ray, Synopsis Methodica, ed. 3, p. 542.
2 Miller, Card. Diet. iii. ed. (1737), under Sen-bus saliva, says, " The manured service was formerly said to be growing
wild in England ; but this I believe to be a mistake, for several curious persons have strictly searched those places where it
was mentioned to grow, and could not find it; nor could they learn from the inhabitants of those countries that any such tree
had ever grown there." ' History of Worcestershire, i. II.
4 Loudon gives the measurements in 1838 as 45 feet high, with a diameter of trunk at a foot from the ground of I foot
9 inches, and states that it was in a state of decay at that time.
r
Pyrus 149
At Croome Court, the seat of the Earl of Coventry, there are two good-sized
trees in the shrubbery, one of which is 59 feet high and 6 feet 2 inches in girth.
The other, with a clean stem, about 50 feet by 7, is beginning to decay. 1 Lady
Coventry told me that the fruit, which is only produced in good seasons, makes
excellent jam when fully ripe, but some seeds which she was good enough to send
me did not germinate.
Loudon mentions a tree at Melbury Court, Dorsetshire, estimated to be 200
years old, and 82 feet high, with a diameter of 3 feet 4 inches, growing in dry loam on
sand. If this was really a true sorb, it must have been the largest on record, but I
learn from the gardener at Melbury that it has long been dead.
There are two good-sized trees at Painshill, and another at Syon which Henry
found to be 44 feet high and 6 feet 9 inches in girth, but on this heavy soil the tree
does not seem to be so long lived, and is dying at the top.
In the Botanic Gardens at Oxford are two well-shaped trees of this species,
which were laden with fruit in 1905, and supposed to have been planted by
Dr. John Sibthorp, who was Professor of Botany in 1784-95. The largest
measures about 50 feet by 5 feet, and is of the maliform variety. Its fruit, which
ripens and falls about the middle of October, is very sweet and pleasant to eat,
much better than medlars, whilst the fruit of the other, which is the pyriform
variety, does not turn red, is smaller, and ripens later. I have raised seedlings from
both of these trees.
In the Cambridge Botanic Garden there is a tree with very upright branches,
which measured, in 1906, 42 feet by 3 feet 4 inches.
At Tortworth there is a healthy, well-shaped tree, not more than 40 years
planted, which is about 40 feet by 5 feet 11 inches. This is in a rather exposed
situation, and it had no fruit in 1905.
At Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, there is a tree which seems to be the
largest now living in this country. Henry measured it in 1904 and found it 77 feet
high by 10 feet 8 inches in girth, with a bole dividing into three stems at 10 feet
from the ground and bearing fruit.
TIMBER
A large tree was blown down at Claremont Park, Surrey, the seat of H.R.H.
the Duchess of Connaught, in 1902, which I am assured by Mr. Burrell, the
gardener there, was a sorb. 2 Its trunk was sent to Mr. Snell of Esher, to whom I
am indebted for two fine planks of its wood. These show a very hard, heavy,
compact surface of a pinkish brown colour with a fine wavy grain, which takes
an excellent polish, and this wood has been used with beautiful effect in the framing
1 London speaks of a tree at Croome 45 years planted, and 80 feet high, which is possibly the same, but his measurements
arc very unreliable.
2 " Among interesting trees to be found at Claremont is a good specimen of tlie pear-shaped service, carrying a heavy
crop of fruit. It is rather over 60 feet high and 7 feet 6 inches in girth at 2 feet from the ground." Note hy E. B. in Garden,
1883, xxiv. 422. Mr. E. Burrell gives a fuller account of the Claremont trees in the same journal, 1888, xxxiii. 154, in which
he states that he thinks the variety maliforinis does not increase in height after it gets to be about 30 feet high, whereas
pyriformis at Claremont is close on 70 feet high.
•