Service Tree

Service-Tree is a tree (Pyrus Sorbus) belonging to the same genus of the Rosaceae as the apple, pear, and rowan. It grows from 20 to 60 feet high, and is wild in France and Italy but doubtfully so in England. It lives to a great age, producing a hard, heavy, fine-grained wood, susceptlble of a high polish, much in request in France for cogs, screws, ru1ers. etc., and suitable for coarse engraving. Its leaves are imparipinnate and serate; its cream-coloured flowers small, and its fruits less than an inch across, either apple-shaped or pear-shaped, greenish-brown with rusty specks, and austere, requiring bletting like those of the medlar. The a11ied British species (P. torminalis) is known as the Wild Service, and its berry-like pomes are termed "Chequers" in country districts.