Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 14. May, 1912. No. 161 
THE GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF CRATAEGUS VIRIDIS L. 
B. F. BUsH. 
Tur authors of the manuals and floras of the Northeastern States, 
and of works on the trees of North America, as well as the writers in 
general on Crataegus give as the range of Crataegus viridis L. some 
such expression as, “from Maryland and Virginia to Florida, west to 
Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, and up the Mississippi Valley to 
Saint Louis, Missouri.” _ 
It would seem that this claim is ably supported by the presence of 
an association of over two hundred characteristically southern plants 
in southeastern Missouri, conspicuous amongst which are Taxodium 
distichum, Acer Drummondii, A. Carolinianum, Aesculus austrina, 
Leitneria Floridana, Arundinaria tecta, Hicoria aquatica, Styrax 
Americana, Nyssa aquatica, Catalpa speciosa, Planera aquatica, Ilex 
opaca, Fraxinus profunda, Bradleya macrostachys, Populus hetero- 
phylla, Itea Virginica, Quercus lyrata, Q. Phellos, Q. Michauxii, 
Phoradendron flavescens, Brunnichia cirrhosa, Euonymus Americanus, 
Jleditsia aquatica, Crataegus Marshallii, Aralia spinosa, Berchemia 
scandens and Liquidambar Styraciflua, species which have come up 
the old valley of an ancient sea. That they have come up is at- 
tested by individuals occurring all the way down this valley to 
the center of greatest distribution, but that the presence of these 
two hundred and odd southern species in southeastern Missouri 
proves that Crataegus viridis L., and its congeners, came up the 
Mississippi Valley, is hereafter to be greatly doubted. 
Much has been written of plant distribution, and I am fully aware 
of the importance of such an association as that indicated in the 
