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168 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
resembles Pyrus Aria. It is of hybrid origin, one parent being either that species or
Pyrus intermedia, while the other is Pyrus Chamamespilus. I t is distinguished
from Pyrus Aria by the larger and more irregular teeth of the leaves (cf. Plate 44),
and its flowers are pinkish white, borne in loose corymbs. Various intermediate
forms have been distinguished, as
Sorbus amdigtia, M ichalet. Exactly intermediate between Pyrus Aria and
Pyrus Chamcemespilus, with the leaves larger than in the second, and smaller than in
the first, and the margins having a tendency to lobing. Tomentum whitish.
Sorbus arioidcs, M ichalet. A form intermediate between ambigua and A ria.
Chamcemespihis x Mougeoti. Leaf large, with lobes well marked and rounded ;
tomentum greyish. These hybrids are common in the Jura and the Alps.
DISTRIBUTION
The whitebeam is a wide-spread species. It occurs throughout Europe
generally, reaching in Norway as far north as lat. 63 52', and in Sweden to lat.
59 . It is met with also in Algeria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Armenia, Siberia,
and Central China, assuming in some of these regions remarkable varietal forms. It
is replaced in the Himalayas and Japan by Pyrus lanata, Don, an allied species.
While it occurs on all soils except those which are wet, it has a decided
preference for limestone. In woods and hedges it grows to be a small tree; but in
exposed situations on rocky mountains, etc. it dwindles to a mere bush. On the
Alps it ascends to 4800 feet.
In the British Isles its distribution has not been accurately made out, as many
supposed records refer rather to intermedia or latifolia. Apparently, however, as a
wild tree, the typical form is almost entirely confined to the southern and midland
counties of England and to south Wales. Variety rupicola is recorded from nearly
every county from Devon to Sutherland, and is widely spread on the littoral range
between Lancaster and Humphrey Head, ascending in Banffshire to 1200 or 1400
feet, where it has been found by Dr. Shoolbred of Chepstow on limestone cliffs near
Inchrory in upper Banffshire. In Ireland the whitebeam is rare and local, and
both the type and rupicola occur. (A. H.)
REMARKABLE TREES
By far the finest specimen that we know of in England or elsewhere grows on
the edge of Camp Wood, near Henley on Thames, on Sir Walter Phillimore's
property, where Henry saw it in 1905. It measures 75 feet high by 4 feet 9 inches
in girth, with a bole about 35 feet long, and has very smooth beech-like bark
(Plate 51).
There is a large and very well shaped tree at Walcot, Shropshire, which in
1906 Elwes found to be 56 feet high and 6\ feet in girth, with a clean bole about 20
feet long.
Pyrus 169
There is a handsome tree on the lawn at Belton Park,which measures 41 feet
by 6 feet 7 inches.
A very spreading, ill-shaped tree in a thicket at Mount Meadow, near Cobham,
Kent, is 9 feet 3 inches in girth.
At Stowe, near Buckingham, there are several fine trees near the Queen's
Temple, which are about 50 feet high, but the tree when growing wild on the
Cotswold Hills, where it is common, rarely exceeds 30 feet with a stem 2 to 3 feet in
girth, and is more usually seen as a bush with many stems.
The whitebeam, like the mountain ash, is occasionally found as an epiphyte
growing on other trees, where its seeds have been dropped by birds. Though this is
more common in the damp climate of the west of England, yet we know of two
cases which are remarkable on account of their situation. One is in the Yew Tree Vale
in Surrey, where a whitebeam is growing near the top of a yew tree j 1 the other is
near Colesborne in the Cotswold Hills. In this case a large limb has been torn by
the wind from a Scots pine, and in the crevice on the east side of the tree, where
but very little vegetable matter has yet had time to form, a healthy young
whitebeam, now about 3 feet high, grew for seven or eight years, when it began to
lose vigour.
Though it is well known that the decaying mossy trunk of a fallen tree is one of
the most favourable situations for the seeds of many conifers to germinate and grow,
yet in this case the roots of the whitebeam must derive their nourishment almost
entirely from the air, the case being very different from those so often seen in the
Himalayas and other countries, where a large quantity of moss, ferns, and decaying
vegetable matter accumulate in the forks of large old trees.
The whitebeam is easily propagated by seed, which, if sown in autumn, will
germinate partly in the following spring and partly in the second year after sowing.
The seedlings grow slowly at first, and require five or six years in the nursery before
they are large enough to plant out. When planted on good soil the whitebeam is
a very ornamental tree, both on account of its leaves and fruit, which is larger and
more abundant than when wild. It is, however, so much liked by birds that it is
soon eaten up.
TIMBER
The wood is hard, heavy, and even in the grain, and is white in colour, with
some dark spots, and in old trees becomes occasionally tinged with red. It is used
on the Continent in turnery and in making tools.
Loudon says that it was used for the axletrees, naves, and felloes of wheels,
carpenters' tools, and walking-sticks, but that the greatest use of its wood, until iron
superseded it, was for the cogs of small wheels. I have felled a tree 18 inches in
diameter, which when cut through was perfectly sound at heart, and was considered
to be well suited for chair-making.
1 Garden, 1 882, xxii. 164.