The Trees of Vermont ■ 147 



ROSACEAE 



Hawtboriis or Thorn-apples 

 Crataegus L. 



Owing to the complexity of the various forms in this group, the 

 present state of uncertainty as to the value of certain characters, and 

 the questionable validity of many of the assigned names, it is thought 

 to be beyond the scope of this bulletin to give more than a general 

 description of the group as a whole, recommending the more ambitious 

 student to the various manuals and botanical journals and papers for 

 more detailed information. 



The Crataegi are generally low, wide-spreading trees or shrubs, 

 with strong, tortuous branches and more or less zigzag branchlets 

 usually armed with stiff, sharp thorns. The bark varies from dark 

 red to gray and is shallowly fissured or scaly. The leaves are alternate, 

 simple, generally serrate, often lobed, with short or long petioles. The 

 flowers appear in May or June, with or after the leaves, in simple or 

 compound corymbs, whitish or pinkish, perfect. The fruit is a red to 

 yellow, sometimes blue or black pome, subglobose to pear-shaped, with 

 usually dry and mealy flesh and 1-5 seeds. The winter-buds are small, 

 nearly globose, lustrous brown. Crataegus produces wood which is 

 heavy, hard, tough, close-grained, red-brown, with thick, pale sapwood. 

 The hawthorns are trees of the pasture-lands, the roadside, the open 

 woods and the stream-banks, and are more common in the southern 

 part of Vermont and in the lower altitudes, although some few species 

 extend northward into Canada and some are found at considerable 

 altitudes. Some of the species are desirable as ornaments in parks and 

 gardens on account of their beautiful and abundant flowers and showy 

 fruits. 



