The Hawthorns 



new and different. It is like an interjection met in the even 

 swing of a long sentence. 



There are vigour and strength expressed at any age by the 

 tree's rigid, zigzag branches, armed with long, sharp spurs. The 

 thorns strike downward, as a rule, on horizontal branches. The 

 leaves stand up "on tiptoe," as if to keep out of the way. Indeed, 

 they might be taken for weapons themselves, they are so thin, 

 and keen edged, and shining. From the ground up, on young 

 trees, the bark is bright and polished, varying from red to brown 

 and grey. 



The flowers are late, coming out in showy clusters when 

 the full-grown leaves make a lustrous background. The fruits 

 make little show until ripe, for the leaves are rarely touched by 

 fungous or insect injuries, and in the fall, when the fruit begins to 

 flush, the foliage takes on the colours of flame. The dull red 

 clusters glow with a subdued warmth on the branches all winter. 

 The birds let them alone. 



So all year long the cockspur is a beautiful ornamental tree, 

 and a competent and popular hedge plant. It is the favourite 

 American thorn in Europe and at home, known for two centuries, 

 and named by Linnaeus, one of the proud old "first families" 

 of the genus Crataegus. 



Crataegus Mohri, Beadl., is a slender thorn tree, close of kin 

 to the other cockspurs, as we recognise by its shining leaves, 

 slender spines and thin-fleshed fruits, with nutlets deeply grooved 

 on the back. It belongs to the group of cockspur thorns whose 

 flowers and fruits are borne on pubescent pedicels. There are 

 twenty stamens, with yellow anthers, set in three rows. 



This straight thorn tree has spreading and rather pendulous 

 limbs, and short, shiny, brown spines. Its range centres in 

 Alabama, whence it extends into Georgia, Mississippi and 

 Tennessee. Its favourite situations are moist, level wood- 

 lands. 



It promises to be for the South what C. Crus-galli is in the 

 Northeastern States a handsome, useful ornamental and hedge 

 tree. 



II. PuNCTATyE 



J Dotted Haw {Craicegus punctata, Jacq.) A broad, round- 

 headed tree, 20 to 50 feet high, with horizontal branches, and 



306 



