Cratcc^is cordata^ 

 THE HEART-LEAVED OR WASHINGTON THORN. 



Synonymes. 



Cratagus cordata, 



IDe Candolle, Prodromus. 

 LoDDON, Arboretum Britannicum. 

 ToRREY AND Gray, Flora of North America. 

 Neflier a feuilles en coBUT, France. 



Herzblattrige 3Iispel, Germany. 



Heart-leaved Thorn, Washington Thorn, Britain and Anglo- America. 



EngraHngi. Londoa Botanical Register, pi. 1151 ; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, ii., fig. 590 in p. 861, el vi. pi. 137 ; 

 *nd the fibres below. 



Specific Characters. Disks of leaves cordate-ovate, angled by lobes, glabrous. Petioles and calyxes with- 

 out glands. Styles 5 in a flower. De Candolle, Prodromus, 



Descriptio7i. 



HE CrataBgus 



^ h H M cordata is a 



D) LI ^ handsome low 



'swk tree or shrub, 



fifteen or twenty feet in height, found 

 in greater or less abundance in rocky 

 places, and on the banks of streams 

 which issue from the Alleghanies, from 

 Canada to Georgia. Its head is close 

 and compact, with branches armed with 

 very long, slender, sharp spines. Its 

 leaves are of a deep, shining green, and 

 vary, exceedingly, in size, according to 

 the age and vigour of the tree. They 

 are usually from one to two inches in 

 length, and are often deeply, and near- 

 ly equally three-lobed, like those of the 

 red-tiowered maple, being sometimes 

 of a slightly rhombic form, and a little tapering at the base. The flowers, which 

 appear by the end of June or the beginning of July, are produced in numerous 

 terminal corymbs, and are succeeded by very small, depressed-globose, bright-pur- 

 ple fruit. This species has been cultivated in Britain since the year 1738, where 

 several fine specimens are growing, of a height of fifteen to thirty feet. It was 

 first cultivated in the nursery of Mr. Main, of Georgetown, in the District of 

 Columbia, towards the close of the last century, and has since been much 

 employed in other parts of the United States for hedges, under the name of 

 "Washington Thorn." 



