shrub, with stiletto-like tips, that luxuriates on some of our commons
and in our hedgerows. The blackish bark that gives its name to the shrub
forms a fine foil in March or April for the pure white starry blossoms
that brave the cold blasts before the leaf-buds dare unfurl their
coverings. In some places--as in Cornwall, where it is the principal
hedge plant, and where cliffs, creeks, and river banks are bordered by
it--these bare black or purple stems are almost hidden by the
abundant growth of the Grey Lichen (_Evernia prunastri_). In this, the
typical form, the branches and twigs turn in every direction, so that it
is impossible to thrust one's hand into a Blackthorn bush without
getting considerably scratched. The well-known flower consists of a
five-lobed calyx, five white petals, and from fifteen to twenty stamens
round the single carpel. The stigma matures in advance of the stamens,
so that it has usually been fertilized by bee-borne pollen from another
Sloe before its own anthers have disclosed their pollen. The fruit is
about half an inch across, globose in form, and held erect upon its
short stalk; black, but its blackness hidden by a delicate "bloom" that
gives it a purplish glaucous hue. Terribly harsh are these fruits to the
palate, and a mere bite at an unripe one is sufficient to set teeth on
edge and contract the muscles of mouth and face. And yet, when the tight
jacket of the Sloe begins to relax and pucker, the juice condenses into
more mealy flesh, and the acridity passes, one may _eat_ not one but a
dozen, slowly, enjoying the piquancy of each before swallowing. Country
people make them into wine, and it used to be said that much that is
sold as port had its origin in the skins of British sloes instead of
Portuguese grapes. And for special use "for the stomach's sake" old-wife
followers of St. Paul pin their faith to gin in which Sloes have soaked
for months.
In the days of our youth it was a stock jibe against the grocer that
most of his China tea had been grown on Blackthorn bushes not far from
home, and with tea at five or six shillings a pound there may have been
some basis of truth for the belief; but with the prices of to-day it may
be presumed that Blackthorn leaves would cost the dealer at least as
much as real tea-leaves from Assam and Darjeeling.
The Bullace (_Prunus communis_, sub-sp. _insititia_) differs from the
Sloe in having _brown_ bark, the branches _straight_ and only a few of
them ending in spines, the leaves larger, broader, more coarsely
toothed, and downy on the underside. The flowers, too, have broader
petals, and the fruit--which may be black or yellow--droops, and is
between three-quarters and one inch in diameter. In many places where
this grows it can only be regarded as an escape from cultivation.
The Wild Plum (_Prunus communis_, sub-sp. _domestica_) has also brown
bark, its branches straight, and not ending in spines. The downiness
noticed on the underside of the Bullace leaves is here restricted to the
ribs of the leaf. The fruit attains a diameter of an inch or an inch and
a half. Although found occasionally in hedgerows, this sub-species is
not indigenous in any part of our islands. Hooker says the only country
in which it is really indigenous is Western Asia; but its numerous
cultivated forms are widely distributed.
It should be noted that the fruits of the Blackthorn and its sub-species
are formed within the flower; so are those of the Cherries, to be next
described, the ovary being botanically termed "superior," that is, above
the base of the calyx and corolla, when the flower is in an erect
position. This is a point of some importance when one seeks to
understand the different formation of the fruit in so closely related a
species as the Apple, in which the ovary is "inferior," or below the
flower.
Wild Cherries (_Prunus avium_).
Nature has been comparatively lavish in the matter of Cherries, for she
has bestowed three species upon the British Islands. For the cultivated
Cherry it is said that we ought to thank the Romans, as for many other
good things in the way of food. Pliny states that we had the Cherry in
Britain by the middle of the first century A.D. Evelyn tells us that the
Cherry orchards of Kent owe their origin to "the plain industry of one
Richard Haines, a printer to Henry VIII.," by whom "the fields and
environs of about thirty towns, in Kent only, were planted with fruit
trees from Flanders, to the unusual benefit and general improvement of
the county to this day." It is probable, however, that our own
countrymen had already effected some improvement on the wild sorts by
cultivation, for even in the woods some trees are found bearing fruit
much larger and of better flavour than usual, and such would be selected
for cultivation.
[Illustration: _Pl. 94._ Gean in flower.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 95._ Flowers of Gean.]
Our three natives are the Wild or Dwarf Cherry (_Prunus cerasus_), the
Gean (_P. avium_), and the Bird Cherry (_P. padus_). Of these the Gean
is the species most widely distributed throughout our country, and we
therefore give it precedence.
[Illustration: Gean. A, fruit; B, flower.]
The Gean (_Prunus avium_) is a tree that in suitable soils attains a
height of thirty or forty feet, with short, stout branches, that take an
upward direction. The leaves are large, broadly oval, with sharp-toothed
edges, and downy on the underside. They always droop from the branches,
and in spring they are of a bronzy-brown tint, which afterwards changes
to pale green. Soon after the leaves have unfolded they are almost
hidden by the umbels of wide-open white flowers, which have soft,
heart-shaped petals, and whose anthers and stigmas mature
simultaneously. The firm-fleshed drupe is heart-shaped, black or red,
sweet or bitter, with scanty juice which stains the fingers. This is
believed to be the original wild stock from which our modern Black
Hearts and Bigarreau Cherries have been evolved by the cultivator.
[Illustration: Wild Cherry. A, fruit; B, flower.]
The Dwarf or Wild Cherry (_Prunus cerasus_) is more bush-like than
tree-like, for it sends up a great number of suckers around the main
stem. The branches are slender and drooping. The leaves, which are of
similar shape to those of _P. avium_, are smooth and deep blue-green in
tint, with round-toothed edges. The flowers are not so widely open as in
the previous species, but retain more of the cup-shape, whilst the
notched petals are firmer in consistence and oval in shape. The drupe
is in this species round, with red skin and juicy flesh of a distinctly
acid character. The juice does not stain as does that of _P. avium_. The
Morello or Brandy Cherry, the May Duke, and the Kentish Cherries are
considered to be derived from this species. This does not extend further
north than Yorkshire; in Ireland it is rare.
[Illustration: _Pl. 96._ Bird Cherry--spring.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 97._ Bole of Bird Cherry.]
The Bird Cherry (_Prunus padus_) forms a tree from ten to twenty feet in
height, with more elliptic leaves, which have their edges doubly cut
into fine teeth. The flowers are not clustered in umbels, as in both the
foregoing, but in a loose raceme from lateral spurs of new growth. The
flowers are erect when they open, and the stigmas mature before the
anthers, so that cross-fertilization is favoured in this species. After
fertilization the flower droops, to be out of the way of the bees in
their visits to the unfertilized blossoms. The petals in this species
look as if their edges had been gnawed. The drupes are small, black, and
very bitter, with a wrinkled stone. This is a northern species, coming
not further south than Leicestershire and South Wales. All three species
flower in late April or early May.
Cherry wood is strong, fine-grained, and of a red colour. It is easily
worked, and susceptible of a high polish, so that it is in request by
cabinet-makers, turners, and musical instrument makers.
[Illustration: _Pl. 98._ Flowers of Wild Apple.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 99._ Bird Cherry--winter.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Pl. 100._ Wild Pear--spring.]
The Wild Pear (_Pyrus communis_).
The Wild Pear is only to be found growing in the southern half of
Britain, its northward range not extending beyond Yorkshire, and even in
the south its claim to be regarded as a true native has been contested.
Mr. Hewett C. Watson regards it as more probably a denizen, that is, a
species originally introduced by man, which has maintained its hold upon
the new land. Upon this assumption it is probable that the
introduced specimens were already somewhat cultivated, but when they (or
their descendants) became wild they reverted to the original condition
of the species.
[Illustration: Wild Pear. A, flower.]
The Wild Pear, or Choke-pear, is a small tree, from twenty to sixty feet
in height, of somewhat pyramidal form. The twigs, which are usually of a
drooping tendency, are also much given to ending in spines--a character
scarcely apparent in the cultivated tree. The leaves, too, of the wild
tree are more distinctly toothed than those of the Garden Pear. They are
oval in shape, with blunt-toothed edges, and downy on the lower surface.
Along the new shoots the leaves are arranged alternately on opposite
sides, but on shoots a year old they are produced in clusters. The
flowers, which measure more than an inch across, are pure white in
colour, and are clustered in cymes of five to nine. They appear in April
and May, and are of the Wild Rose type, there being numerous stamens,
from three to five styles, which ripen before the stamens, five petals,
and the calyx, taking the form of a pitcher with a five-lobed mouth,
represents the five sepals.
In speaking of the Wild Plums we directed attention to the fact that the
ovary was within the flower; in the Pear (and the other members of the
genus _Pyrus_) it is below the flower, hidden away in fact within the
calyx-tube. When the flower opens it is ready for fertilization, but as
the stamens of that flower are not yet mature this can only be
accomplished by pollen brought by the bees from other flowers as they
rifle the honey-glands. The effect of pollination is to cause special
vegetative activity in the neighbourhood of the ovary, resulting in the
thickening of the flesh of the calyx-tube around it, until it has become
of the characteristic pear-shape, and an inch or two in length. A
section of a pear or apple, taken lengthwise, will show a faint green
outline of the ovary, and will demonstrate how much of the flesh is
really belonging to the calyx-tube. The fruit of the Wild Pear is green
until about November, when it turns yellow. It is of too harsh a
character to be fit for eating.
A Pear formerly known as a variety (_briggsii_) of _Pyrus communis_ is
now regarded as a distinct species under the name of _Pyrus cordata_. It
is found in Cornwall, and is distinguished by its more oval leaves being
rounded at the base, and by its much smaller fruits being often
globular.
The Pear is a long-lived tree, that grows singly or in small groups on
dry plains. It attains a height of about fifty feet in thirty years, and
its girth may then be three or four feet. The timber is fine-grained,
strong and heavy, with a reddish tinge. Stained with black, it is used
to counterfeit ebony.
[Illustration: _Pl. 101._ Wild Apples.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 102._ Bole of Wild Pear.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 103._ Wild Pear--winter.]
The Wild Apple (_Pyrus malus_).
It is by no means an easy matter to decide whether the Crab-trees that
grow along the hedgerows are truly wild or the offspring of orchard
apples. In woods, away from gardens and orchards, there is less
difficulty. Like the Pear, the Apple appears to have been the subject of
cultural attention from very early times. This is proved by the
philologists from the similarity of the equivalents for our word Apple
in all the Celtic and Sclavonian languages, showing by their common
origin that the fruit was of sufficient importance to have a distinctive
name long before the separation of the peoples of Northern Europe. The
name of Crab is of comparatively recent origin. Prior regards it as a
form of the Lowland Scotch _scrab_, derived from Anglo-Saxon _scrobb_, a
shrub, indicating that it is an Apple-bush rather than an Apple-tree.
The Wild Apple has not the pyramidal form of the Wild Pear, the branches
spreading more widely when young and drooping when older, so that the
head is rounded. In height it varies as a tree from twenty to thirty
feet, though many examples of good age still retain the dimensions of a
bush. Owing to the spreading character of the branches, the diameter of
the head often exceeds the height of the tree. The bole has seldom any
pretensions to symmetry, and is usually more or less crooked like the
older branches. The brown bark is not very rough, though its numerous
fissures and cracks give it a rugged appearance. Its wood, like that of
the Pear, is hard and fine-grained, but, instead of having a reddish
tinge, there is a tendency to brownness. The leaves vary in shape, but
are more or less oblong, smooth above, sometimes downy on the lower
surface when young, and with toothed edges.
[Illustration: Crab or Wild Apple. A, flower; B, fruit.]
The flowers are about the same size as those of the Wild Pear, but their
white petals are beautifully tinted and streaked with pink. The small
clusters are umbels--that is to say, the footstalks of similar length
start from a common base. The fruit is almost spherical, and instead of
the foot-stalk gradually merging into the apple, the attachment is
always in a depression of the latter. In the typical form of the Wild
Apple the yellow and red fruit hang by their slender stalks, but there
is a variety (_mitis_) in which the fruit is borne _above_ the stouter
stalks. The variety may also be known by the downiness of the young
leaves, the calyx-tube, and the stalks. The fruit is about an inch
across, and so rich in malic acid as to be unfit for food in its
natural state, though children punish their digestive organs with it.
Pigs are partial to Crab-apples, a taste they have evidently inherited
from the wild boar. A delicious preserve, called Crab-jelly, is made by
stewing the whole fruit, then pressing the soft flesh through a hair
sieve, and boiling the pulp with sugar. Cyder is made from the rotting
Crabs; also a kind of vinegar called verjuice, or vargis.
[Illustration: _Pl. 104._ Wild Apple--summer.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 105._ Wild Apple--winter.]
The Wild Apple is found all over the United Kingdom as far north as the
Clyde, and wherever it is known to occur it is worth a special visit in
May, when all its crooked branches and straggling shoots are rendered
beautiful by the abundance of delicately tinted and fragrant flowers. It
is also far from being unattractive in the autumn, when the miniature
apples hang from the boughs.
[Illustration: _Pl. 106._ Bole of Crab, or Wild Apple.]
White Beam (_Pyrus aria_).
Owing to its very local occurrence, the White Beam, though widely
distributed, is one of the less known of our trees and shrubs. It comes
into both these categories according to the situation of its growth, for
whilst in exposed mountainous localities a specimen of mature age may be
no more than four or five feet high, and of bush-like growth, under the
lee of a wood, and on a calcareous soil, it will be an erect and
graceful tree of pyramidal form, whose apex is forty feet from the
ground. In its early years growth is tolerably rapid, but at the age of
ten it slackens pace, and after it has attained its majority its
progress is very slow. Its wood is fine-grained, very hard, white, but
inclining to yellow. The bark is smooth, and little subject to the
cracks and fissures that mark the Apple-bark. The branches, except a few
of the lowest, all have an upward tendency.
[Illustration: _Pl. 107._ White Beam--spring.]
[Illustration: White Beam. A, fruits.]
The leaves vary considerably in the several forms or sub-species, but in
the typical form they are a broad oval, with the edges coarsely toothed
or cut into lobes, the upper side smooth, and the lower side clothed
with white cottony down, the almost straight nerves strongly marked. The
white flowers, which appear in May or June, are only half an inch
across, and gathered into loose clusters. They are succeeded by nearly
round scarlet fruits, half an inch in diameter, known in Lancashire and
Westmoreland as Chess-apples. The tree is also known in the same
districts as Sea Owler, the latter word, according to Prior, being a
corruption of Aller or Alder, probably from the resemblance of the
plaited leaves to those of _Alnus glutinosa_. These Chess-apples are
very sharp and rough to the taste, but when kept like Medlars, till
they "blet" or begin to decay, are far from unpleasant. Birds and
squirrels eagerly seek for them on the tree, and those that fall are as
welcome to hedgehogs and other mammals. This form is only found from the
Midlands to the South of England as far west as Devon, and in Ireland.
The sub-species _latifolia_ (_Pyrus rotundifolia_ of some botanists) has
broader leaves, varying from oval-oblong to almost round, divided into
wedge-shaped lobes, the cottony down beneath being grey rather than
white, and the nerves less prominent on the underside. This form is
found in Cornwall.
The sub-species _scandica_ (also known as _Pyrus intermedia_) has the
leaves less tough, more deeply divided into rounded or oblong lobes, and
the grey cotton beneath of a looser character. This form is found in
Scotland.
It should be noted that this species must not be called the White
Beam-_tree_, for the word _beam_ is the Saxon equivalent for tree. Other
names for it include Hen-apple, Cumberland Hawthorn, Hoar Withy, Quick
Beam, and Whipcrop.
THE WILD SERVICE (_Pyrus torminalis_) is a small tree of local
occurrence, which does not extend further north than Lancashire. In
general appearance it may be taken for the White Beam, but closer
inspection will reveal the following differences. The leaves, which are
cut into tapering lobes and coarsely toothed, are heart-shaped at the
base; when young they are slightly downy beneath, but when mature they
are smooth on both sides. Though the flowers are similar in size and
colour to those of the White Beam, the fruit is smaller (one-third inch
in diameter), less globular, and more like a large haw, though the
colour is greenish-brown. The flowers appear in April and May, and the
fruit, which is of a very dry, juiceless character, is ripe in November.
In some localities these fruits are marketed, but they require to be
kept like Medlars, until decay sets in, before they are fit to be eaten.
[Illustration: _Pl. 108._ Flowers of White Beam.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 109._ Bole of White Beam.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 110._ White Beam--winter.]
Mountain Ash, or Rowan (_Pyrus aucuparia_).
Little description of the Mountain Ash is needed, for in recent years it
has come so much into favour that it is now one of the commonest of the
trees planted in little suburban gardens and fore-courts. Its hardiness,
its indifference to the character of the soil, the fact that other
plants will grow beneath it, and the absence of need for pruning--all
these points unite to make it suitable and popular for growth in
restricted spaces. But the wood on the hillside is the natural home of
the Mountain Ash, and in the Highlands its vertical range extends to
2600 feet above sea-level.
[Illustration: _Pl. 111._ Rowan, or Mountain Ash--summer.]
The Mountain Ash attains a height of from thirty to fifty feet, and has
a straight clean bole, clothed in smooth grey bark, scarred horizontally
as though it had been scored with a knife. All the branches have an
upward tendency, and the shoots bear the long feathery leaves, whose
division into six or eight pairs of slender leaflets suggests _the_ Ash,
from which part of its name has been borrowed. Gazing on this tree
either in flower or fruit, it would be quite unnecessary to explain that
it is not even remotely allied to _Fraxinus excelsior_, and that the
similarity of leaf-division is the only point of resemblance between
them. These leaflets have toothed edges, are paler on the underside, and
in a young condition the midrib and nerves are hairy. The creamy-white
fragrant flowers are like little Hawthorn blossoms, though only half the
size, and they appear in dense clusters (_cymes_) in May or June. The
fruit are miniature apples, of the size of holly-berries, bright scarlet
without and yellow within. They ripen in September, and are then a great
attraction to thrushes, blackbirds, and their kind, who rapidly strip
the tree of them. Though this at first sight may appear like frustrating
the tree's object in producing fruit, it is not really so, the
attractive flesh being a mere bait to induce the birds to pass the seeds
through their intestines, and thus 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 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.
[Illustration: Rowan, or Mountain Ash. A, portion of flower-cluster.]
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 seldom allowed to grow into
a fully developed tree, but, thanks to the birds, it comes up on the
common and the hillside, and has a chance of producing its masses of
ruby fruit. Its wood is tough and elastic, but, owing to the smallness
of its girth, it does not produce timber of any size. Still, it makes
admirable poles and hoops.
The word Rowan is one of the most interesting of tree-names, and
connects the still-existing superstitious practices of our northern
counties, not only with the old Norsemen, but with the ancient Hindus
who spoke the Sanskrit tongue. The word is spelled in many ways which
connect it with the Old Norse _runa_, a charm, it being supposed to have
power to ward off the effects of the evil eye. In earlier times _runa_
was the Sanskrit appellation for a magician; _r[^u]n-stafas_ were staves
cut from the Rowan-tree upon which runes were inscribed. Until quite
recently the respect for its magical properties was shown in the north
by fixing a branch of Rowan to the cattle-byre as a charm against the
evil designs of witches, warlocks, and others of that kidney. In this
connection we may quote also from Evelyn's "Sylva." He says: "Ale and
beer brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink,
familiar in Wales, where this tree is reputed so sacred that there is
not a churchyard without one of them planted in it (as among us the
Yew); so, on a certain day in the year, everybody religiously wears a
cross made of the wood; and the tree is by some authors called Fraxinus
Cambro-Britannica, reputed to be a preservative against fascinations and
evil spirits; whence, perhaps, we call it witchen, the boughs being
stuck about the house or the wood used for walking-staves."
[Illustration: _Pl. 112._ Bole of Rowan.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 113._ Flowers of Rowan.]
Among the numerous names of the Mountain Ash are Fowler's Service (or
Servise, from _Cerevisia_, a fermented drink), Cock-drunks, Hen-drunks
(from the belief that fowls were intoxicated by eating the "berries"),
Quickbeam, White Ash (from the colour of the flowers), Witch-wood, and
Witchen. Quickbeam is in allusion to the constant movement of
foliage, quick being the Anglo-Saxon _cwic_, alive. Witch-wood and
Witchen are also forms of _cwic_.
[Illustration: _Pl. 114._ Rowan--winter.]
* * * * *
The True Service (_Pyrus sorbus_) 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
photographs 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.