58. CRATAEGUS PUNCTATA DOTTED-FRUITED THORN. 21 



58. CRATAEGUS PUNCTATA, JACQ. 

 DOTTED-FRUITED THORN, THORN-APPLE. 



Ger.,6feflecte Mispel; Fr., Neflier a fruits pointilles; Sp., Espino puntuado. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves wedge obovate, 1 to 2 in. long, narrowing to a 

 short petiole, entire at base, unequally or doubly and sometimes incisely serrate above, 

 veins prominent; villous-pubescent but becoming smooth and dull above; glands 

 wanting. Flowers (April-June) white, in somewhat compound corymbs of 8-15 

 flowers each, calyces pedicels and newer growth villous-pubescent. Fruit (ripe in 

 September) globose, ^-1 in. in diameter, pendulous, red or yellowish and puncate 

 with white dots, edible. 



(Punctatum is the Latin for spotted, applying to the dotted nature of the fruit.) 



Small trees sometimes 25 ft. (7-8 m.) in height and 10 or 12 inches 

 (0.30 m.) in diameter of trunk, with wide-spreading, crooked branches, 

 gray bark rough with loosely adhering longitudinal ridges, and usually 

 bearing stout sharp thorns 1 to 2 inches in length. The appearance of 

 the tree in late summer when in full leaf and bearing its red handsome 

 fruit is very pleasing. 



HABITAT. Canada and eastern United States southward to Georgia, 

 along hill-sides and in dry rocky soil. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood moderately heavy, hard, strong and 

 close-grained, yielding a very smooth surface, of a light chocolate-brown 

 color with light yellowish-brown sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7681; 

 Percentage of Ash, 0.47; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.7645; 

 Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 47.87. 



USES. A tree of little economic value owing to its small size, though 

 interesting for ornamental purposes and excellent for fuel. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. None are claimed of this species. 



GENUS AMELANCHIER, MEDIC. 



Leaves deciduous, simple, sharply serrated; stipules free from the petiole. 

 Flowers in racemes, white ; calyx 5 cleft, tube adherent to ovary, lobes downy 

 within; petals 5, elongated (oblong to oblanceolate); stamens short and numerous; 

 styles 5, united below ; ovary 5-celled at first with 2 ovules in each cell, but later a 

 false partition forms between each pair of ovules so as to make in Fruit (if all 

 seeds develop) a more or less distinctly 10-celled pome with one seed in each cell. 



Small trees and shrubs. (Amelanchier is the popular name in Savoy of the com- 

 mon European species.) 



