A DISCOURSE

2T#

book ,r

c h a p. xvi:

The 2 UIC K-B E A M ■

ryn

1. I HE Q.UICK-BEAM, ORNUS, or,, as the Pinax more peculiarlyterms it, Fraxinus Bubula, others the Wild Sorb and Witchen, is a species-of Wild Ash. The berries which it produces in October may then besown, or rather the sets planted. I have store of them in a warm groveof mine, and they are of singul ar be auty. It rises to a reasonable stature,shoots upright and slender, and consists^oFTfine sinootn bark, it delights,to be both in mountains and woods, and to fix itself in good lightgrounds.. Virgil affirms it will unite with the Pear .

“This is the SORBUS (aucvpasia) foliis pinhatis, ufrinque glabris. Lin. Sp. PI. 683 ,Service-tree with -winged leaves , -which are smooth on both sides, Sorbus sylvestris , foliis domcflicar.similis. C. B. P. 415. Wild Service -with leaves like the cultivated commonly called QuickEN fQvicK-BEAMy mountain ash , and in the north, rowan tree,

The Quick-beam grows naturally in many parts of England; but an the southern counties it isseldom seen of any great magnitude, being commonly.cut down, and reduced to underwood ;but in the North of England and Wales , wliere the trees are permitted to grow, they arriveat a considerable size. The stems are covered with a smooth- grey bark ; the branches whileyoung have a purplish brown bark, and the leaves are winged ; they are composed of eightor nine pair of long narrow lobes, terminated by an odd one ; the lobes are about two incheslong, and half an inch broad toward their base, ending in acute points, and are sharplysawed on their edges; the leaves on the young trees in the spring, are hoary on their underside, which about Midsummer goes off, but those upon the older branches have verylittle at any season. The flowers are produced in large bunches, almost in form of umbels,at the end of the branches; they are composed of five spreading concave petals shaped likethose of the Pear-tree, but smaller; these are succeeded by roundish berries, growing in largebunches, which have a deprefsed naval on the top, and turn red in autumn when theyripen.

The buds of this tree begin to open about the beginning of April. The leaves are outby the middle of the month, and the flowers are in full blow by the sixth of May. Thereare three styles and twenty stamina inserted into the Calyx, which shows that this treebelongs to the clafs and order Icosandria Trigynia.

The quick-beam is raised from seeds sown as soon as ripe, in beds properly prepared.These frequently remain till the second spring before they make their appearance; and inthe spring following they should be put out into the nursery. It is sometimes raised from,layers; but when cultivated in that manner, the trees are neither so handsome nor