The Hawthorns 



rigid twigs. Thorns straight, slim, 2 to 3 inches long, brown or 

 grey. Bark thin, dark brownish red, in long, plate-like scales, 

 branches brown to pale grey; twigs pubescent at first, soon 

 becoming smooth. IVood red-brown, hard, close-textured. Buds 

 plump, small, scaly, shiny. Leaves obovate, acute or obtuse at 

 apex, 2 to 3 inches long, narrowed to short petiole; sharply 

 serrate, sometimes lobed, entire toward base; pubescent at first, 

 smooth at maturity, except on veins below, leathery, grey-green, 

 orange and scarlet in autumn. Feins prominent, depressed 

 above. Flowers, May, when leaves are half grown, in thick, 

 flat, many-flowered corymbs on pale tomentose stems; calyx 

 hairy, corollas spreading, white, i to f inch across, stamens 20, 

 with rose-coloured or yellow anthers, styles 2 to 5, hairy at base. 

 Fruit falls in October, short-oblong to sub-globose, ^ to i inch 

 long, yellow or red; marked by white dots; flesh thin, dry; calyx 

 lobes flattened; nutlets 5, ridged on back. Preferred habitat, rich, 

 moist upland soil. Farm thickets. Distribution, Quebec to Detroit; 

 western New England, along mountains to northern Georgia, 

 Tennessee and North Carolina; west to Ohio and Illinois. Uses: 

 Valuable ornamental hawthorn. 



The large, pale dots on the fruit of this haw give it its name, 

 punctata. Very strangely, some trees produce yellow fruit, 

 and have flowers with yellow anthers; while red is the rule in 

 both anthers and fruit. 



The dotted haw is a handsome, long-thorned tree, with 

 obovate, strongly veined leaves, whose colour in autumn is like 

 fire. The fruit is brilliant, too, hanging in full clusters long after 

 the leaves drop. 



CratcEgus collina, Chapm., which resembles C. punctata and 

 C. Crus-galli in habit, has yellow-green foliage, and the dull red 

 fruits are flattened globes, containing five grooved and ridged 

 nutlets. Sometimes the branches are set with formidable, 

 branched thorns, 6 inches long. It is quite common for the trunk 

 to be corrugated and buttressed at the base. 



This tree grows along the foothills from West Virginia to 

 central Georgia, and west half way across Tennessee and Alabama. 

 It reaches an altitude of 2,500 feet. It is an early species, bloom- 

 ing in April when the leaves are scarcely opening, and ripening its 

 fruit in September. The flesh is yellow and thin, mealy and 

 insipid. 



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