New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 307 



species have been developed. These naturally show marked 

 differences among themselves yet there are distinctive features 

 which one soon learns to recognize as characteristic of the 

 species. The new growth in autumn has a light gray color which 

 gradually changes to the dark gray or dull brown of the older 

 wood. The bushes are usually stocky with upright, straight, 

 thick branches as shown in figure 1, plate XII, and figures 1 to 4, 

 plates XXII and XXIIl. Sometimes the branches curve slightly 

 or droop but they never assume the graceful habit of the Ameri- 

 can oxi/acantkoides' with its slender arching or drooping branches 

 as illustrated in Pale Red, see figure 2, plate XII, neither do they 

 resemble the Cynoshati which has tall slender canes with slender 

 spreading branches and drooping branchlets. Figure 3, plate 

 XIII, shows young bushes of this species. When full grown 

 they are taller than either of the other species referred to, often 

 being from three to four feet high. 



The European species usuallj^ bears from one to three light- 

 colored spines at the base of the leaf which are generally large 

 and thick, as shown in the accompanying cut of a Chautauqua 

 leaf, see figure 1, and sometimes smaller spines are scattered 

 irregularly along the stem. Spineless varieties of this species 

 have been recently placed on the market, in which the spines 

 are represented by mere bristles or are altogether wanting. Such 

 instances are quite exceptional, however, and can not be called 

 characteristic of the species. The leaves, which are often clus- 

 tered, on short side branches or spurs, are glossy on the upper 

 surface, rather thick, roundish, one or two inches wide, with 

 from three to five lobes as shown in figure 1. The fruit, see 

 plates X'S^ and XXI, is from one-half inch to an inch or more in 

 diameter, smooth or bristly, and red, green, yellow or nearly 

 white in color. The greenish drooping flowers, one-fourth inch 

 in diameter, h-dxo purplish, reflexed, pubescent calyx lobes and 

 pubescent ovary and peduncles. The latter are short, one to 

 three flowered and one to three bracteate about the middle. 



Some characters of the American species R. oxijacanthoides. — 

 The American species oxyacanthoides, which is represenlcd in 



