138 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



it extends to Florida. The fruit is dull orange-red, 

 and resembles a very diminutive crab apple ; it is 

 ripe in September. The flowers grow in clusters 

 similar to those of the English hawthorn, and meas- 

 ure about two thirds of an inch across ; they are 

 white, and very often pink-tinged. The leaf is ex- 

 tremely ornamental — conventionally regular in char- 

 acter as well as appearance with its deep - green, 

 smooth, and shiny surface. The branchlets are more 

 or less covered with thorns about an inch long. The 

 white thorn is well worthy of cultivation, as early 

 and late, in flower or fruit, it is both beautiful and 

 decorative. 



Scarlet Haw. The scarlet haw, which formerly was 

 Cratcegm mollis, confused with the preceding variety, 

 is marked with pronounced differences. The fruit is 

 much larger (an inch to an inch and a quarter in diam- 

 eter) ; it is sweet and edible, and falls in September. 

 The leaf divisions are less sharply pointed, and the 

 leaf itself is lighter green and much larger. This 

 thorn also flowers early — when the leaves are half 

 grown, in the middle or end of May. The mature 

 leaf measures from three to five inches in length, and 

 is often densely cottony below. 



The scarlet haw grows on the margins of swamps 

 and along streams, in rich soil, from Massachusetts 

 Bay to Michigan and Missouri, and from the middle 



