all the trees indigenous to Europe: fine-grained, red-tinted,
susceptible of a high polish, and much in request in France for all
purposes where strength and durability are needed. He further says that
it takes two centuries to attain its full stature (fifty to sixty feet),
"and lives to so great an age that some specimens of it are believed to
be upwards of 1000 years old."
We have already made reference to the meaning of the name Service.
Another name--Sorb (from Latin _sorbeo_)--shows closer affinity for the
fermented liquor indicated by Servise, for it means "drink down." A
third name is Chequer-tree, which Dr. Prior tells us is an antique
pronunciation of the word _choker_, in allusion to the unpalatable
fruit, fit to choke one. Choke-pear, it will be remembered, is a synonym
of the Wild Pear. Britten and Holland regard the name Chequer-tree as
having no connection with choking, but an indication of the chequered or
spotted appearance of the fruit.
[Illustration: _Pl. 115._ True Service Tree--spring.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 116._ Fruit of Medlar.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 117._ Bole of True Service.]
* * * * *
The Medlar (_Pyrus germanica_) is a small tree, native of Persia, Asia
Minor, and Greece, and which is generally held to occur wild in England
and the Channel Islands only as an escape from cultivation. The theory
is that the tree was introduced at some date prior to 1596--when we have
record of its being in cultivation here--and that the Medlar-trees
growing in the hedges of south and middle England are from seeds of
these cultivated trees, which have been sown by birds, or more probably
mammals who have eaten the fruit. The fact that it is not found in woods
is taken as evidence that it is non-indigenous. Such evidence is not the
most convincing, but it is the best available. It should be noted,
however, that the agents credited with its distribution along our
hedgerows have free access to woods, and that if these places were
favourable to the growth of the Medlar, we should probably find it
there, whether indigenous or exotic. Much more conclusive, we think, is
its restricted distribution abroad, as already indicated. One would not
expect to find a tree whose nearest home is Greece, leaping over
the whole of Europe and appearing as an indigene in Britain.
[Illustration: Medlar. A, flower.]
In its wild condition the Medlar is a much-branched and spiny tree, from
ten to twenty feet high, in these respects resembling the Hawthorn; but,
like the Pear, it puts off its defences when cultivated. Its leaves are
large and undivided, of an oblong-lance shape, downy beneath, and
sometimes with the edges very finely toothed. The solitary white flowers
are large--one and a half inches across--with a woolly calyx, whose five
tips expand into leafy growths. They appear in May or June, and are
succeeded by brown fruits, an inch or less across, which may be
described as round, with a depressed top, which is ornamented with the
remains of the calyx-lobes. They ripen in October or November.
Hawthorn (_Crataegus oxyacantha_).
Though distributed as a wild tree throughout the length and breadth of
the British Islands, we are all more familiar with the Hawthorn as
planted material in the construction of hedges, and this is a use to
which it has been put ever since land was plotted out and enclosed. For
the word is Anglo-Saxon (_haegthorn_), and signifies hedge-thorn. The man
in the street would say without hesitation that Hawthorn means the thorn
that produces Haws, but the philologist would tell him that it is only a
modern and erroneous practice to apply the name of the hedge to the
fruit of the hedge-thorn. It is also Whitethorn, to make the distinction
between its light-grey bark and that of the Blackthorn; and May because
of the period when it chiefly attracts attention.
[Illustration: _Pl. 118._ Fruits of Hawthorn.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 119._ True Service--winter.]
Where the Hawthorn is allowed its natural growth, it attains a height of
forty feet, with a circumference between three and ten feet. Such a tree
is represented in our photograph. On our commons, where in their youth
the Hawthorns have to submit to much mutilation from browsing animals,
their growth is spoiled; but though some of these never become more than
bushes tangled up with Blackthorn into small thickets, there are others
that form a distinct bole and a round head of branches from ten to
twenty feet high, which in late May or (more frequently) early June look
like solid masses of snow. The characteristic of the tree which makes it
so valuable as fencing material is found in its numerous branches,
supporting a network of twigs so dense that even a hand may not be
pushed among them without incurring serious scratches. That this
character is not confined to it as a hedge shrub is clearly shown by the
winter photograph of the leafless tree.
[Illustration: Hawthorn, or May. A, fruit ("haws").]
The well-known lobed leaves are very variable both in size and shape,
and the degree to which they are cut. They are a favourite food with
horses and oxen, who would demolish the hedges that confine them to the
fields but for the spines which protect the older branches at least. The
white flowers are about three-quarters of an inch across, borne in
numerous corymbs. The pink anthers give relief to the uniform whiteness
of the petals. The flowers, though usually sweet-scented, occasionally
give forth a very unpleasant odour. The familiar fruits, too, instead of
their usual crimson, are yellow occasionally, as in the Holly. In
favourable years these are so plentiful that they quite kill the effect
of the dark-green leaves, and when such a tree is seen in the October
sunshine, it appears to be glowing with fire to its centre. Beneath the
ripe mealy flesh there is a hard bony core, in whose cells the seeds are
protected from digestion when the fruit has been swallowed by a bird.
The Hawthorn is said to live from a century to two centuries, growing
very slowly after it has reached a height of about fifteen feet. Its
wood is both hard and tough, and the name of the genus has reference to
that fact, being derived from the Greek kratos, strength.
[Illustration: _Pl. 120._ Hawthorn--summer.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 121._ Flowers of Hawthorn--"May."]
[Illustration: _Pl. 122._ Bole of Hawthorn.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 123._ Hawthorn--winter.]
The Strawberry-tree (_Arbutus unedo_).
Not in the woods or by waysides in Great Britain will the
Strawberry-tree be found, though it may be seen in parks and gardens;
but in parts of the Emerald Isle it is native. Killarney, Muckross, and
Bantry are given by Hooker as its Irish stations, but we have also found
it in the woods at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, in a situation where it
seemed unlikely such a tree would be planted. It does not attain a large
size--ordinarily about ten or twelve feet--though in cultivation it may
attain to twenty or even thirty feet. The bark is rough and scaly,
tinged with red, and twisted. The leathery leaves are more or less oval,
two or three inches long, with toothed edges and hairy stalks. Although
arranged alternately on the shoots, they present the appearance at a
little distance of being clustered, rosette fashion, at the tips of the
twigs. The creamy-white flowers are clustered in drooping racemes at the
ends of the twigs, and are about one-third of an inch across,
bell-shaped. When the seed-eggs have been fertilized the corollas
drop off, so that in the flowering season (September and October) the
ground beneath will usually be found strewn with them. The fruit is a
round berry, of an orange-red hue, whose surface is completely studded
with little points. As these berries do not come to maturity until about
fourteen months after the flowers have dropped their corollas, we may
see both flowers and almost full-formed fruit on the tree at the same
time. They are not eatable until quite ripe, and even then they are not
to everybody's taste, on account of their austerity. In truth, we have
it on the testimony of Pliny that the old Latin name _unedo_, now
enshrined in the specific scientific name, was given to it because to
eat one of these tree strawberries was a sufficiently extensive
acquaintance for most persons.
[Illustration: Strawberry-tree.]
It is perhaps unnecessary to add that, in spite of the name, there is no
relationship existing between this tree and _the_ Strawberry; nor is
there more than a faint superficial resemblance between the fruits of
the two plants. The Strawberry belongs to the great Rose family, whilst
the nearest British connections of the Arbutus are the Bilberries and
Heaths.
[Illustration: _Pl. 124._ Strawberry Tree.]
Dogwood (_Cornus sanguinea_).
Among the constituents of the broad hedgerow, and the copse that borders
many a country road, the Dogwood or Cornel is apt to be overlooked as
Privet, to which its similar, opposite leaves and clusters of small
white flowers bear a superficial resemblance. It has a great variety of
local names, though it must be admitted that many of these show close
connections one with another. This, however, makes them not less
interesting, but indicates how ancient and general is the underlying
idea which has given rise to them. Dogwood had originally no connection
with dogs, but was the wood of which dags, goads, and skewers were made,
because, as the Latin _Cornus_ signifies, it was of horny hardness and
toughness. When the etymology got changed by the substitution of "o" for
"a" in dag, it was also called Dog-tree, Dog-berry, Dog-timber, and
Houndberry-tree, and to explain the name it was said that the bark made
an excellent wash for mangy dogs. Gatter, Gatten, Gaiter, Gaitre-berry,
are all from the Anglo-Saxon _Gad-treow_, or goad-tree; Gadrise means
Goad-shrub (_Gad-riis_), and Gatteridge is _gaitre rouge_, from the red
colour of the bare twigs.
[Illustration: _Pl. 125._ Fruits of Dogwood.]
[Illustration: Dogwood, or Cornel. A, flowers; B, berries.]
But we must not overlook the shrub itself whilst considering its wealth
of names. It grows to a height of six or eight feet, and is clothed with
opposite oval leaves, which are smooth on both surfaces. The honeyed
flowers are produced in June or July at the extremities of the branches
in dense round cymes. Individually they are small (one-third of an inch
across), opaque white, with four petals and four stamens, which mature
concurrently with the stigma. They give out an unpleasant odour, which
appears to render them more attractive to flies and small beetles. The
flowers are succeeded by small green berries, which turn purple-black
about September, and are exceedingly bitter. They are said to yield an
oil which is used in France for soap-making, and has been here burned in
lamps.
The Dogwood is widely distributed over Britain as far north as
Westmoreland. It does not occur in Scotland, and is rare in Ireland. It
would seem as though its place in North Britain was taken by a
herbaceous species, the Dwarf Cornel (_Cornus suecica_), which grows
upon Alpine moorlands from Yorkshire as far north as Sutherlandshire.
The stems of this, which have as many inches to their stature as the
shrub has feet, die down annually. Its minute flowers are purplish
instead of white, and its smaller berries red.
[Illustration: _Pl. 126._ Flowers of Dogwood.]
Wayfaring-tree (_Viburnum lantana_).
The Wayfaring-tree has a number of names by which it is known locally,
but the one we have used is generally known, though it may have the
disadvantage of being a comparatively modern one whose parentage is
known to us. The origin of most of these popular names is lost in the
mists of antiquity. John Gerarde, whose "Herbal" was published in 1597,
noting its fondness for roadside hedges and thickets, called it
Wayfaring-tree, or Wayfaringman's-tree. Thereupon Parkinson, nearly half
a century later, remarks: "Gerard calleth it in English the Wayfaring
tree, but I know no travailer doth take either pleasure or profit by it
more than by any other hedge trees." Our own experience serves to prove
that Wayfarers, as a class, have improved since Parkinson's day, for we
have frequently been questioned in the Surrey chalk-districts, at
various seasons, respecting the bold plant; in winter showing its large
naked buds, all rough with starry hairs, which keep off frost, as well
as do the many scales and thick varnish of Horse-chestnut buds; in
summer the broad, hairy leaves, looking as dusty as a miller's coat,
whilst above them spread the slightly rounded heads of white flowers;
later, when the flowers are succeeded by bunches of glowing coral beads,
that in autumn become beads of jet. It is not confined to the
chalk-hills, but as far north as Yorkshire may be looked for wherever
the soil is dry, though it finds this condition best on the chalk, and
is there especially abundant. It is not indigenous in either Scotland or
Ireland.
[Illustration: _Pl. 127._ Fruits of Wayfaring-tree.]
[Illustration: Wayfaring-tree. A, portion of flower-cluster.]
Though it grows to a height of twenty feet in places, it can never
properly be called a tree. Its downy stems are never very stout. They
branch a good deal, and it should be noted that the branches are always
given off in pairs, a branch from each side of the stem at exactly the
same height; the leaves are produced in the same order. These leaves,
which are three or four inches in length, are much wrinkled,
heart-shaped, with a blunt, small end, white beneath, and the edges very
finely toothed. The flower-cluster is a cyme, and it should be noted
that all the white flowers comprised in it are of the same size and
form, the corollas being funnel-shaped, with five lobes, and the five
stamens are extruded from the mouth. The flowers, which are jointed to
the stalks, are out in May and June, and the flattened oval fruits that
follow are, as already stated, at first red, then black.
The local names for this shrub include Mealy-tree, Whipcrop,
Cotton-tree, Cottoner, Coventree, Lithe-wort, Lithy-tree, Twist-wood,
White-wood. Mealy-tree, Cotton-tree, Cottoner, and White-wood all have
obvious reference to the appearance of the young shoots and leaves, due
to the presence of the white hairs with which they are covered.
Lithe-wort and Lithy-tree, also Twist-wood and Whipcrop, indicate the
supple and elastic character of the branches, which are often used
instead of Withy to bind up a bundle of sticks or vegetables, or to make
a hoop for a gate-fastener. In Germany the shoots, when only a year old,
are used in basket-weaving, and, when a year or two older, serve for
pipe-stems.
[Illustration: _Pl. 128._ Wayfaring Tree.]
The Guelder Rose (_Viburnum opulus_).
Although the Guelder Rose and the Wayfaring-tree are very closely
related, the differences between them are so great that there is little
danger of any person with ordinary powers of observation confusing them.
The Guelder Rose does not grow so tall as its congener, twelve feet
being about the extreme height to which it attains in a wild state, and
ordinarily it is several feet less. It is not so fond of dry soils, and
is more frequently found in the copse, where it is not subject to the
extremes of heat and cold that have produced the hairy covering of _V.
lantana_. The stems and branches are quite smooth, and the leaf-buds are
wrapped in scales. The young leaves, it is true, when they break from
the bud, are covered with down, but they throw this off as they expand
to their full size, and become smooth on either side. Instead of the
leaf being heart-shaped, it is divided into three deeply toothed lobes,
and it will be noted that at the base of the leaf-stalk there is a pair
of slender stipules, which _lantana_ never has. The cyme or flower-head
is more rounded, and whilst the mass of flowers are of the same size (a
quarter of an inch) as those of the Wayfaring-tree, those in the outer
row are three times the size--but they are entirely without stamens or
pistil! It would appear that in order to make the flower-cluster more
conspicuous, and thus attract insects, the material that should have
gone to furnish these organs has been used up in the broader and whiter
corolla. The inner and perfect flowers are creamy-white, bell-shaped,
and they secrete honey. Both stamens and stigma mature simultaneously.
The fruits are almost round, and of a clear, translucent red. Respecting
these fruits, we cannot forbear from quoting a remark of Hamerton's. He
says, writing as the French recorder of the _Sylvan Year_: "For any one
who enjoys the sight of red berries in the most jewel-like splendour,
there is nothing in winter like the Viburnum, the species we call
_Viorne obier_, and if you meet with a fine specimen just when it is
caught by the level rays of a crimson sunset, you will behold a shrub
that seems to have come from that garden of Aladdin where the fruit of
the trees were jewels." These fruits, though enticing to the sight, and
juicy, are nauseous to the taste.
[Illustration: Guelder Rose. A, fruit; B, flowers.]
The name Guelder Rose is a strange case of transference from a
cultivated to a wild plant: the var. _sterilis_, in which _all_ the
flowers are like the outer row in the normal cluster, was first
cultivated in Gelderland; so Gerarde tells us that "it is called in
Dutch, _Gheldersche Roose_; in English, _Gelder's Rose_." In the
Cotswolds it is known as King's Crown, from the "King of the May" having
been crowned with a chaplet of it. Another name for it is Water Elder,
presumably given on account of the similar appearance of the
flower-clusters in _Viburnum_ and _Sambucus_.
The distribution of the Guelder Rose as a wild plant extends northwards
to Caithness, although it is rare in Scotland. It occurs throughout
Ireland.
[Illustration: _Pl. 129._ Elder.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 130._ Fruits of Guelder Rose.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 131._ Flowers of Elder.]
The Elder (_Sambucus nigra_).
[Illustration: Elder. A, berries; B, portion of flower-cluster.]
The Elder is more a tree of the wayside than of the woodland, often of
low bushy growth; but where it finds good loamy soil with abundant
moisture it attains a height of twenty feet. None of our trees grows
more rapidly in its earliest years, and any bit of its living wood will
readily take root, so that its presence in the hedge is often due to
planting for the purpose of rapidly erecting a live screen. Its quickly
grown juicy shoots soon harden into a tube of tough wood with a core of
pith which is readily extracted, and renders the tube available for a
peashooter, a pop-gun, or a music-pipe. Such uses have been known from
remote antiquity--probably one might say from the beginnings of the
human race. The ancient Greeks called it _Samb['u]ke_, from its wood having
been used in the making of musical instruments. In the north of Britain
it is known as Bourtree, Bore-tree, or Bottery, from the ease with which
this clearing out of the pith is effected, and it is pretty clear that
the more general name of Elder also has relation to the tubular shoots.
Piers Plowman calls the tree Eller, a name that survives in Kent,
Sussex, Lincoln, East Yorks, and Cheshire. This word, according to
Prior, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _eller_ and _ellarn_, and seems
to mean "kindler"--"a name which we may suppose that it acquired from
its hollow branches being used, like the bamboo in the tropics, to blow
up a fire." It is thus probable that the housewife got her bellows, the
musician his pipe, and the schoolboy his pop-gun, all from the same
source.
The stems are coated with a grey corky bark, and the younger divisions
of the branches show an angular section when cut. When old, the wood
becomes hard and heavy, and has been used as a substitute for Box. The
leaf is divided into five, seven, or nine oval leaflets with toothed
edges. The flower is of the form that botanists describe as _rotate_,
that is, the corolla forms a very short tube, from the mouth of which
five petal-like lobes spread flat. This is a quarter of an inch broad,
and creamy-white in colour, giving out an odour which some persons like,
but which the writer considers offensive. Large numbers of these small
flowers are gathered into flat-topped cymes, five or six inches in
diameter. The primary stalks of these cymes are five in number. The
flowers are succeeded by small globular berries, ultimately of a
purple-black hue, and of mawkish flavour, which are yet much sought
after by country people for the making of Elderberry wine, which they
credit with marvellous medicinal powers. In truth, the Elder still
retains among rustic folk much of the reputation it had when John
Evelyn praised it so highly in his "Sylva," where he says, "If the
medicinal properties of the leaves, bark, berries, etc., were thoroughly
known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might
not fetch a remedy from every hedge, either for sickness or wound."
Occasionally one may find in the hedgerow an Elder with its leaflets
deeply cut into very slender lobes, so that the leaf has resemblance to
that of Fool's Parsley. This is an escape from cultivation--a garden
variety (_laciniata_) known as the Cut-leaved or Parsley-leaved Elder.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Pl. 132._ Box Trees.]
[Illustration: _Pl. 133._ Bole of Box.]
The Box (_Buxus sempervirens_).
Though frequently to be met with in parks and ornamental grounds, there
are only a few places in this country where the Box is really
indigenous. These are in the counties of Surrey, Kent, Buckingham, and
Gloucester. On the famous Box Hill, near Dorking, in Surrey, it may be
seen attaining its proper proportions as a small tree, and in sufficient
abundance to form groves covering a considerable area. It grows to a
height of fifteen or twenty feet, with a girth of about twenty inches.
Its slender branches are clothed with small, oblong, leathery leaves,
which give out a peculiar and distinctive odour. They are about an inch
in length, polished on the upper side, evergreen, and opposite.
The flowers may be looked for from January to May, and will be found
clustered between the leaf and the stem. These are quite small and
inconspicuous, of a whitish-green colour, and the sexes are in separate
flowers. The uppermost one in the centre of each cluster is a female
flower; the others are males. The males consist of four petals,
enclosing a rudimentary ovary, from beneath which spring four stamens.
The sepals of the female flower vary in number, from four to twelve, and
enclose a rounded ovary with three styles, which are ripe and protruded
before the males open. This develops into the three-celled capsule with
three diverging beaks, which correspond with the styles, and in each
cell there are one or two black seeds.
[Illustration: Box. A, male flowers; B, female flower.]
The growth of the tree is very slow, and, in consequence, the grain of
its wood is very fine. It is also very hard, and so heavy that alone
among native woods it will not float in water. On account of its fine
grain and hardness, it is in request by the turner and mathematical
instrument maker, and was formerly largely used by the wood-engraver for
"woodcuts." Since the introduction of the photographic "process"
blocks, the industry of preparing Box-wood for the engraver must have
become all but extinct, and for that reason Box plantations must be less
valuable assets than formerly. It is on record that when the Box Hill
trees were cut in 1815, the "fall" realized nearly [L]10,000. Box Hill is
in no sense a plantation; its slopes and summit are clothed with a
natural mixed wood of Box, Oak, Beech, and Yew. Beneath every Box-tree
will be found hundreds of seedlings of various ages. Some of these may
be seen in our photograph, which depicts naturally grown Box-trees on
the famous hill. It will be noted that their "habit" is widely different
from that of the more bush-like forms so familiar in gardens.
PART II.
EXOTIC TREES AND SHRUBS.