1910.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 205 



18. Crataegus laetans n. sp. 



Glabrous with the exception of the hairs on the upper surface 

 of the young leaves. Leaves oblong-ovate, acuminate, rounded or 

 abruptly cuneate at the base, sharply often doubly serrate, with 

 slender straight glandular teeth, and deeply divided usually only 

 above the middle into 3 or 4 pairs of narrow acuminate spreading or 

 reflexed lobes; nearly half-grown when the flowers open about the 

 middle of May and then thin, light yellow-green and slightly roughened 

 above by short white hairs and paler below, and at maturity thin, 

 dark blue-green, lustrous and scabrate on the upper surface, pale 

 bluish green on the lower surface, 4-5 cm. long and 2.5-4 cm. wide, 

 with thin midribs and primary veins; petioles slender, slightly 

 wing-margined at the apex, glandular, with occasional minute usually 

 deciduous glands, 2-2.5 cm. in length; leaves on vigorous shoots 

 thicker, rounded at the base, coarsely serrate, deeply divided into 

 4 or 5 pairs of acute lateral lobes and often 6-7 cm. long and wide. 

 Flowers 1.2-1.3 cm. in diameter, on short slender pedicels, in small 

 compact mostly 6-12-flowered corymbs, the elongated lower peduncles 

 from the axils of upper leaves; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, the 

 lobes long, slender, acuminate, entire, reflexed after anthesis ; stamens 

 10; anthers deep rose color; styles 2-4, surrounded at the base by a 

 narrow ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening early in October and per- 

 sistent until after the leaves have fallen, on slender drooping pedicels, 

 in mostly 6-9-fruited clusters, obovate or rarely short-oblong, flattened 

 or slightly depressed at the apex and rounded at the narrow base, 

 sometimes 3-5-angled, dark orange-red, slightly pruinose, marked by 

 numerous pale dots, 1.1-1.3 cm. in diameter; calyx little enlarged, 

 with a deep narrow cavity, and small spreading often persistent lobes 

 dark red on the upper side below the middle; flesh thick, rather succu- 

 lent, greenish yellow, acidulous; nutlets usually 3 or 4, rounded at the 

 apex, acute at the base, ridged on the back, with a low grooved ridge, 

 5-5.5 mm. long and 4-4.5 mm. wide. 



A shrub 3-4 m. high, with smooth stems covered with dark gray 

 scaly bark, and slender nearly straight branchlets dark orange-green 

 when they first appear, becoming dark orange-brown, lustrous and 

 marked by dark lenticels in their first season and dull reddish brown 

 the following year, and armed with slender straight or slightly curved 

 chestnut brown shining spines 2-3 cm. long and occasionally per- 

 sistent and becoming branched on old stems. 



Nine-mile Run, Pittsburg, Allegheny County, 0. E. and Grace K. 

 Jennings, (No. 68 type) May 17, 1907, O. E. Jennings and B. H. Smith, 

 October 5, 1907. 



