293 



long-stoot witli coarsely dentate or (tlie uppermost) sub-loLed 

 glabrescent leaves and foliaceous stipules ; (/3) flowering shoot with 

 large coarsely dentate g-labrescent leaves, coll. 1901 ; (7) flowering 

 and fruiting, leaves less coarsely dentate to dentate-serrate, 

 with the teeth often small, glabrescent underneath, stipules 

 narrow, linear, early deciduous, all from the same tree, sub C^ 

 me.ricana, coll. 1913. The examination of this tree in the autumn 

 of 1914 showed that the lobing of leaves and the presence of dis- 

 tinctly foliaceous stipules were confined to long-shoots growing up 

 perpendicularly from the branches. All the other foliage was 

 fairly uniform, except in size, and corresponded with the type- 

 represented in SweeVs Flower Garden, approaching also very 

 closely to that shown in the Botaijical Register, t. 1910. 



5. Hort. Segrez, a flowering branch with very coarselv dentate- 

 to sublobed, almost glabrescent leaves and narrow foliaceous* 

 stipules, loaf-bases markedly cuneate, grown as Crataegus 

 & patliulata ,^ coll. May, 1885. 



6. Hort. EUacombe at Bitton; two flowering branches, the- 

 nearest approach to the type represented by Humboldt and 

 Bonpland's figure and practically indistinguishable from it except 

 for its more scanty tomentum ; a long-shoot with coarsely dentate 



leaves and foliaceous stipules, just like the long-shoot in the 

 Paris specimen; grown as Crataegus 'mexicana, coll. June, 1890. 



None of these specimens possess spines ; but there are spines of 

 the ordinary type here and there on the Kew^ tree, mostly at the 

 base of the long-shoots. ' 



The form originally described by Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 the area of w^hicli, as far as it can be ascertained from the material 

 at Kew, is confined to the Mexican tableland from S. Luis Potosi to* 

 the Federal District of Mexico, I shall call f. Humholdtii. The 

 question arises now, what evidence is there that the form cultivated 

 in Europe — we may call it conveniently f. stiimlacea — occurs in 

 Mexico? There are, to begin with, two specimens at Kew, col- 

 lected in Mexico, which may be considered good representatives of 

 it. One is the flowering branch already mentioned as issued with 

 a small leaved fruiting branch under C G. Pringle's no. 11,440 

 and collected in open woodlands near Eslaba (2660 m.) in the- 

 Federal District; the other a flowering specimen, C G. Pringle, 

 6547, from the base of the Sierra of Ajusco (2G00 m.), also in the 

 Federal District, both having been distributed as Cratacrjus 

 siipulosa, Steud. The onlj- difference that might be pointed out 

 as existing between them and the C. stipulacea of gardens is in the 

 slightly denser tomentum of the leaves. It will be observed that 

 both specimens come from the very area of the f. Huviholdtii., 

 but there is no Indication of their Having been taken from culti- 

 vated trees- 1 In less complete agreement with that form are the 

 following specimens arranged geographically : 



Hidalgo. 1. C. G. Pringle, no, 6631, river banks near Tula 



J 



* The true G. spaihulala is G, ciineata Sieb. et Zucc, of Japan. 



f Eggleston, speaking of Crataegus in Mexico ^^[enerally, says *' the trees 

 are guarded as carefully as other fruit trees are with us " (Bull. Torr. Bofc. 

 Club, xxxvi, p. 504), and there is no evidence that they are actually cultivatedr 

 on anything like a large scale. ^ ■ * 



