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154 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
In Sussex, Sir E. Loder knows it as an uncommon hedgerow tree of no great
size, and Mr. Stephenson Clarke, of Borde Hill, also tells me that it occurs there, and
more commonly in the Isle of Wight, where, in Bridlesford Copse, Woolton, a wood
of about 200 acres, are perhaps two dozen old trees, which differ in appearance from
the Sussex ones in assuming a somewhat pendulous habit of branching when
well grown. I find no mention of the occurrence of the tree in the New Forest,
and the Hon. G. W. Lascelles does not know it there.
We have no record of Pyrus torminalis as a planted tree in Scotland, except
that the Rev. Dr. Landsborough x notes a tree in vigorous health in Bellfield Avenue,
Kilmarnock, which was 2 feet 9 inches in girth in 1893. He calls it the English
service tree or table rowan, and adds that, in spite of its Latin name, the fruit is
pleasant. In Ireland the tree is very rare. Henry saw, however, a fine specimen
in 1903, at Adare, Limerick, which measured 53 feet by 5 feet 10 inches.
The fruit is ripe late in October, when it falls, if not previously eaten by birds,
and the seeds, which only seem to mature in warm summers, should be sown at once,
or kept in sand exposed to the weather and sown in spring, when they will germinate
the next year. Seedlings raised by me from seed gathered at Les Barres,
France, which were sown 7th July 1902, germinated 9th March 1903, and were on
14th October 1904 I to 2 feet high. The leaves turn a reddish yellow in autumn,
when the tree is decidedly ornamental, though, on account of its slow growth, it does
not seem to have any value as a forest tree, and is rarely procurable from nurserymen
in this country.
TIMBER
Pyrus torminalis is unknown as a timber tree in the trade owing to its scarcity,
and is mentioned by Boulger 2 only as " a small tree, sometimes 30 feet high, with
wood practically identical in character and uses with that of the rowan." Stone
does not mention it at all, and Marshall Ward, in his edition of Laslett, says nothing
worth quoting.
I am indebted to Mr. Stephenson Clarke for a log of the timber, which
resembles that of the whitebeam tree, being hard, heavy, and, according to Loudon,
weighing, when dry, 48 Ibs. per cubic foot.
Mr. Weale, of Liverpool, reports as follows on a sample of this wood which I
sent him : " Of a hardness between true service tree and whitebeam. Rays on
transverse section just visible, a little narrower than sycamore, but wood generally
exhibits similar characters. Takes a good finish, but this is not lasting, the ring
boundaries rising after exposure. Seasons fairly well, shrinks a little, and rather
inclined to twist."
Evelyn says that "the timber of the sorb is useful to the joiner, of which I
have seen a room curiously wainscotted; also to the engraver of woodcuts, and for
most that the wild pear tree serves." (H. J. E.)
1 Annals of Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers' Society, 1 894, p. 11.
8 Woods of Commerce, 3 12.
Pyrus
PYRUS LATIFOL1A, S ERVICE TREE OF FONTAINEBLEAU
Pyrus fafifolia, Boswell Syme, Bot. Exchange Club Report, 1 872-1874, p. 19 (1875).
Pyrus rotundifolia, Bechstein, N. E. Brown in Eng. Bot. iii. ed. Suppl. 164 (1892).
Craltegus latifolia, Lamarck, Flore Franfaise, ed. i. 486 (1778).
Sort/us latifolia, Persoon, Sy/i. PI. ii. 38 (1807).
A tree, attaining a height of 60 feet in France, with smooth, grey bark, which
becomes fissured at the base in old trees. Leaves broadly oval, with a broad,
rounded, or truncate base and an acute apex; margin with small triangular lobes,
decreasing in size from the base of the leaf upwards, dentate and mucronate, the
sinuses opening between the lobes almost at a right angle. The leaves are firm in
texture, shining and glabrous above, tomentose and greyish green beneath, with 6 to
io pairs of lateral nerves prominent underneath. Flowers in moderate-sized corymbs,
never long peduncled. Fruit globular, ^ inch diameter, smooth, reddish, marked with
brown dots, flesh edible ; containing two cells, one seed in each cell, or more often
one cell with one seed, the other cell containing two aborted ovules.
The description just given is drawn up from Fontainebleau specimens ; and trees
absolutely identical are said to occur in various forests in Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-
Marne, Marne, Aube, and Yonne.
A series of forms, 1 however, occur in the forests of the east of France, in Alsace-
Lorraine, Spain, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, and Bosnia, which differ slightly in the
general outline of the leaf and in the colour and marking of the fruit; and these
are supposed to be hybrids between Pyrus Aria and Pyrus torminalis, between
which species they oscillate in the characters of the foliage and fruit; whereas,
according to French botanists, the tree of Fontainebleau is a true species, as it repro
duces itself naturally by seed; and, moreover, one of the supposed parents, Pyrus
Aria, is not, according to Fliche, wild in the forest of Fontainebleau. 2 However,
the differences are trifling; and it is convenient, in the present state of our know
ledge, to treat these supposed hybrids as varieties of Pyrus latifolia.
VARIETIES
Var. rotundifolia (Bechstein). 3 Leaves broadly oval or suborbicular, sometimes
even broader than long, truncate or rounded at the base, sub-obtuse at the apex ;
lobes obtusely cuspidate.
Var. decipiens (Bechstein). 4 Leaves elongated with acute bases, much resembling
1 These may be called, if their hybriclity is considered to be established, Pynis Ario-torminalis, Garcke, Flora -van
Deutschland, ed. 17, 207 (1895). Fliche, in Mathieu, Flore Forestiere, 1 77 (1897), sums up the question thus: Fontaine
bleau tree not a hybrid, near to Pyrus Aria, a true species, seed germinating readily and producing natural seedlings ;
Lorraine tree nearer to Pyrus lorminalis than to Pyrus Aria, a true hybrid, seeds rarely perfect. Rouy et Fourcaud, Flore de
France, vii. 22 (1901), suggest that the Fontainebleau tree is a hybrid fixed and behaving as a true species. Sec also Irmisch
in Bol. Zeitung, 1 859, p. 277.
2 Cf., however, p. 156, note 2. 3 Pynis rottmdifolia, Bechstein, Forslbotanik, 1 52 and 316, t. 5, 1843.
4 Pyrus decipiens, Uechslein, loc. ctl. 1 52 and 321, t. 7.