2 88 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



tlie hawthorns, whicli have somewhat similar fruits. Haw- 

 thorns are commonly furnished with slender, pointed branches, 

 giving- to the twigs a peculiar spurred appearance. Between 

 the different varieties it is exceedingly ditttcult to discriminate. 

 About six species exist w^ithin the state, and they are to be class- 

 ified by the shapes of the leaves and the outlines and surfaces 

 of the fruits. The flowers are borne in flat-topped clusters, 

 reminding one of the flat-topped elder inflorescences. The 

 fruits are never large, 

 being in all the species 

 about the size of choke- 

 berries. Sometime s 

 hawthorn trees fail to 

 produce thorns or form 

 them but sparingly. It 

 is not then easy to dis- 

 tinguish them from the 

 June-berries or choke- 

 1) e r r i e s ; but in such 

 instances the flower 

 clusters are usually dis- 

 tinctive, for while those 

 of the hawthorn are, for 

 the m o s t part, flat- 

 topped, the lower flow- 

 ers having longer stems 

 than the ujiper, the clus- 

 ters in June-berries and 

 chokeberries are pan- 

 icled or but slightly tlat- 

 topped. 



Mountain-ashes. The mountain-ashes are very close to the 

 ajjples and hawthorns. Indeed, they may be regarded as 

 apples with diminutive fruits and compound leaves. Two 

 sorts of mountain -ash may be looked for in the Minnesota 

 woods. Thev are both low trees with com])ound. feather- 

 shaped leaves and small white flowers in terminal, compound, 

 llat-lopi)e(l evmes. The fruits .are little red berries. <|uite like 

 the apple fruits, except that the core has not the ])a])ery walls 



}'"IG. 140. .^pplc-blo.ssoms. After photograph by 

 Williams. 



