ROSACEA 



389 



23. Crataegus punctata, Jacq. 



Leaves obovate, pointed or rounded at the apex, gradually narrowed to the 

 cuneate entire base, sharply and often doubly serrate above the middle, with minute 

 teeth, and sometimes, especially on vigorous shoots, more or less incisely lobed; when 

 they unfold thickly covered below with pale hairs and pilose above, about half grown 



when the flowers open from the middle of May until early in June and then pilose 

 on the midribs and veins below and nearly glabrous above, and at maturity thick and 

 firm, pale gray-green and glabrous on the upper surface, more or less villose on the 

 lower surface, 2'-3' long, f '-1^' wide, and on vigorous shoots sometimes 3'-4' long, 

 and l^'-2' wide, with broad prominent midribs and primary veins deeply impressed 

 on the upper surface, turning bright orange or orange and scarlet in the autumn; 

 their petioles stout, wing-margined above, at first villose or tomentose, becoming 

 pubescent or glabrous, ^'-^' long. Flo"wers ^'-f in diameter, in broad tomentose or 

 villose compound many-flowered corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, villose or 

 tomentose, the lobes narrow, acute, nearly entire or minutely glandular-serrate, 

 villose on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers rose color or yellow; styles 5, 

 surrounded at the base by conspicuous tufts of white hairs. Fruit ripening and 

 falling in October, on stout pedicels, in many-fruited drooping clusters, short-oblong 

 or subglobose, dull red or sometimes bright yellow and usually agreeing with the 

 anthers in color, marked by numerous small white dots, ^'-V long; flesh thin and 

 dry; nutlets 5, rounded and prominently ridged on the back, about y long. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, stout branches 

 spreading nearly at right angles and forming a round or flat-topped head, or some- 

 times ascending and forming a narrow open irregular head, and branchlets coated at 

 first with pale deciduous pubescence, becoming light orange-brown or ashy gray, 

 and armed with slender straight light orange-brown or gray spines 2'-3' long. 



Distribution. Rich hillsides; valley of the Chateaugay River, Quebec, to the 

 valley of the Detroit River, Ontario, southward through western New England, and 

 along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia, ascending in North Carolina 

 and Tennessee to nearly 6000 above the sea, westward through New York and Ohio 

 to southern Michigan and Illinois. A form, var. canescens, Britt., densely hoary- 

 tomentose on the under surface of the leaves, petioles, and corymbs, occurs in Bucks 

 County, Pennsylvania. 



